THE  MONSTE 


GAR.    SALT  US 


THE  MONSTER 


Copyright,  1912, 
fty  Edgar  Salt  us. 


The  Monster 


WHEN  the  clergyman  had  gone,  the 
bride  turned. 
Before  her  was  an  open  win 
dow  before  which  was  the  open  sea.  In 
the  air  was  a  tropical  languor,  a  savour 
of  brine,  the  scent  of  lilies,  the  sound 
of  mandolins  that  are  far  away.  Below,  in  the 
garden,  were  masses  of  scarlet,  high  heaps  of 
geranium  blooms.  A  bit  beyond  was  the 
Caprian  blue  of  the  San  Diego  Bay.  There, 
a  yacht  rode,  white  and  spacious.  The  yacht 
belonged  to  her  husband  who  was  beside  her. 
She  turned  again  and  as  passionately  he  em 
braced  her;  she  coloured. 

For  the  moment,  as  they  stood  there,  they 
seemed  so  sheerly  dissimilar  that  they  might 
have  come  of  alien  races,  from  different  zones. 
He,  with  his  fair  hair,  his  fair  skin,  his  resolute 
and  aggressive  face,  was  typically  Anglo- 
Saxon.  She,  with  her  delicate  features,  her 
dense  black  hair,  and  disquieting  eyes,  looked 


M128566 


>8  THE  MONSTER 

like  a  Madrilene  Madonna — one  of  those 
fascinating  and  slightly  shocking  creations  of 
seventeenth-century  art  that  more  nearly  re 
semble  infantas  serenaded  by  caballeros  than 
queens  of  the  sky.  There  was  a  deeper  con 
trast.  He  appeared  frankly  material;  she, 
all  soul. 

Leisurely  she  freed  herself. 

"One  might  know/'  she  began,  then  paused. 
A  smile  completed  the  sentence. 

He  smiled  too. 

"Yes,  Leilah,  one  might  know  that  however 
I  hold  you  to  me,  I  never  can  hold  you 
enough." 

"And  I !    I  could  be  held  by  you  forever." 

On  the  door  came  a  tap,  rapid  and  assured. 
A  page  entered,  the  preoccupation  of  the  tip 
in  his  face,  in  his  hand  a  platter  of  letters. 

The  man,  taking  the  letters,  dismissed  him. 

"Miss  Ogston,"  he  continued.  "From  your 
father,  confound  him.  It  is  the  last  time  he 
will  address  you  in  that  fashion.  Miss  Og 
ston,"  he  repeated.  "From  the  Silverstairs,  I 
fancy.  Gulian  Verplank.  There  is  but  one 
for  me." 

He  looked  at  his  watch.  "The  launch  from 
the  yacht  will  be  here  shortly." 

"When  do  we  start?" 

"Whenever  you  like.    The  Marquesas  will 


THE   MONSTER 

keep.  Bora-Bora  will  be  the  same  whenever 
we  get  there.  Only— 

"Only  what?" 

"I  am  in  love  with  you,  not  with  hotels." 

"Let  us  go  then.  There  will  be  a  moon  to 
night?" 

"A  new  one,  a  honeymoon,  a  honeymoon 
begun." 

"Gulian!  As  if  it  could  end!" 

In  pronouncing  the  "u"  in  his  name  her 
mouth  made  the  sketch  of  a  kiss. 

"You  would  not  wish  it  to?"  he  asked. 

"When  I  die,  perhaps,  and  even  then  only 
to  be  continued  hereafter.  Heaven  would  not 
be  heaven  without  you." 

She  spoke  slowly,  with  little  pauses,  in  a 
manner  that  differed  from  his  own  mode  of 
speech,  which  was  quick  and  forceful. 

Verplank  turned  to  the  letter  that  had  been 
addressed  to  him,  and  which  he  still  held. 
Without  opening  it,  he  tore  it  into  long,  thin 
strips.  It  was,  he  knew  from  the  imprint,  a 
communication  of  no  importance;  but,  at  the 
moment,  the  action  seemed  a  reply  to  her  re 
mark.  It  served  to  indicate  his  complete  in 
difference  to  everything  and  everyone  save  her 
only.  Afterward,  with  a  regret  that  was  to  be 
eternal,  she  wished  he  had  done  the  same  with 
hers. 


10  THE   MONSTER 

Yet,  pleased  at  the  time,  she  smiled. 

"Gulian,  you  do  love  me,  but  I  wonder  do 
you  love  me  as  absolutely  as  I  love  you?" 

Verplank,  with  a  gesture  that  was  familiar 
to  him,  closed  and  opened  a  hand. 

"I  do  not  know.  But  while  I  think  you  can 
not  love  me  more  wholly  than  I  love  you,  I  do 
know  that  to  me  you  are  the  unique." 

Leilah  moved  to  where  he  stood. 

"Gulian,  and  you  to  me.  You  are  the  only 
one."  She  moved  closer.  Raising  her  hands, 
she  put  them  on  his  shoulders.  aTell  me,  shall 
you  be  long  away?" 

"An  hour  or  two.  Apropos,  would  you  care 
to  leave  before  dinner?" 

"Yes." 

"We  will  dine  on  board,  then.  Is  there 
anything  in  particular  you  would  like?" 

"Yes,  lilies,  plenty  of  lilies;  and  pineapples; 
and  the  sound  of  your  voice." 

Lifting  her  hands  from  his  shoulders  to  his 
face,  she  drew  it  to  her  own.  Their  lips  met 
longly.  With  the  savour  of  her  about  him, 
Verplank  passed  out. 

Idly  Leilah  turned.  Before  her  the  sea  lay, 
a  desert  of  blue.  Below,  on  the  beach,  it  broke 
with  a  boom  in  high  white  waves  which,  in  re 
treating,  became  faintly  mauve.  The  specta 
cle  charmed  her.  But  other  scenes  effaced  it; 


THE   MONSTER  11 

sudden  pictures  of  the  Marquesas;  the  long 
flight  southward;  the  brief,  bright  days;  the 
nights  that  would  be  briefer  still.  Pleasurably 
for  a  while  these  things  detained  her.  Idly 
again  she  turned. 

On  the  table  were  the  letters.  One  was 
from  an  intimate  friend.  Violet  Silverstairs,  a 
New  York  girl  who  had  married  an  English 
man,  and  who  since  then  had  resided  abroad. 
The  other  was — or  appeared  to  be — from 
MatlackOgston. 

Matlack  Ogston  was  Leilah's  father.  That 
a  father  should  write  to  a  daughter  is  only 
natural.  But  that  this  father  should  write 
surprised  her,  as  already  it  had  surprised  Ver- 
plank.  When  he  mentioned  whom  the  letter 
was  from  she  had  thought  he  must  be  in  error. 
Now,  as  she  opened  it,  she  found  that  he  had 
been.  Her  father  had  not  written.  The  en 
velope  contained  a  second  envelope  addressed 
to  another  person.  This  envelope  had  for 
merly  been  sealed  and  since  been  opened.  It 
held  three  letters  in  an  unknown  hand. 

She  began  at  one  of  them.  More  exactly, 
she  began,  as  some  women  do  begin,  at  the  end. 
The  signature  startled.  At  once,  as  she  turned 
to  the  initial  sentences,  she  experienced  the 
curious  and  unenviable  sensation  of  falling 
from  an  inordinate  height,  and  it  was  not  with 


12  THE   MONSTER 

any  idea  that  the  sensation  would  cease,  but 
rather  with  the  craving  to  know,  which  in 
certain  crises  of  the  emotions  becomes  more 
unendurable  than  any  uncertainty  can  be,  that 
she  read  the  rest  of  the  first  letter;  after  it,  the 
second  letter,  and  the  third. 

Then,  as  truth  stared  at  her  and  she  at  truth, 
so  monstrous  was  its  aspect  that,  with  one  shud 
dering  intake. of  the  breath,  life  withered  with 
in  her,  light  vanished  without. 

When  ultimately,  without  knowing  who  she 
was ;  when,  conscious  only  of  an  objective  self 
struggling  in  darkness  with  the  intangible  and 
the  void,  when  then  life  and  light  returned, 
she  was  on  the  floor,  the  monster  peering  at 
her. 

She  disowned  it,  disavowed  it.  But  beside 
her  on  the  floor  the  letters  lay.  There  was  its 
lair.  It  had  sprung  from  them,  and  always 
from  them  it  would  be  peering  at  her,  driving 
her  mad  with  its  blighting  eyes,  unless— 

She  got  on  her  hands  and  knees,  and  from 
them  to  her  feet.  Her  body  ached  from  the 
fall,  and  her  head  was  throbbing.  With  the 
idea  that  smelling  salts,  or  some  cologne  water 
which  she  had,  might  help  her,  she  went  and 
fetched  them  from  an  adjoining  room.  They 
were  not  of  much  use,  she  found,  though  pres 
ently  she  could  think  more  clearly,  and  in  a 


THE   MONSTER  13 

little  while  she  was  considering  the  possibility 
that  had  loomed. 

In  certain  conditions  the  soul  gets  used  to 
monsters.  It  makes  itself  at  home  with  what 
it  must.  Her  soul,  she  thought,  might  also. 
But  even  as  she  thought  it,  she  knew  she  never 
could.  She  knew  that  even  were  she  able  to 
succeed  in  blinding  herself  to  this  thing  by 
day,  at  night  it  would  crawl  to  her,  sit  at  her 
side,  pluck  at  her  sleeve,  wake  her,  and  cry: 
"Behold  me!" 

It  would  cry  it  at  her  until  she  cried  it  at 
him.  Then  inevitably  it  would  kill  her. 

She  had  been  seated,  bathing  her  head  with 
cologne.  Now  fear,  helplessness,  the  con 
sciousness  of  both  possessed  her.  They  im 
pelled  her  to  act.  She  stood  up.  She  looked 
about  the  room.  Filled  with  flowers  and  sun 
shine,  it  said  nothing.  Beyond  was  the  sea.  It 
called  to  her.  It  told  her  that  in  a  rowboat 
she  could  drift  and  be  lost.  It  told  her  that 
that  night  she  could  throw  herself  from  the 
yacht.  The  blue  expanse,  the  high  white 
waves,  the  little  mauve  ripples  invited. 

The  room,  though,  with  its  flowers  and  sun 
shine,  deterred.  To  throw  herself  from  the 
yacht  meant  that  she  would  have  to  wait.  It 
meant  more.  It  meant  that  she  would  have  to 
see  him.  It  meant  that  she  would  have  to 


14  THE    MONSTER 

feign  and  pretend.    These  things  she  could  not 
do. 

There  remained  the  rowboat.  Yet,  in  some 
way,  now,  the  sea  seemed  less  inviting.  At  the 
thought  of  its  embrace  and  of  its  depths  she 
shrank.  To  die,  to  cease  any  more  to  be,  to 
succumb  like  the  heroines  of  the  old  tragedies 
to  fate,  at  the  idea  of  that,  her  young  soul  re 
volted.  There  must  be  some  other  course. 

She  looked  from  the  window.  Beneath,  be 
fore  the  ocean,  a  motor  was  passing.  The 
whirr  of  it  prompting,  flight  occurred  to  her, 
an  escape  to  some  spot  that  would  engulf  her 
as  surely  as  the  waves.  Hesitatingly  she  con 
sidered  it.  But  there  was  nothing  else.  More 
over,  if  she  were  to  go,  she  must  go  at  once. 

She  turned,  crossed  the  room,  stooped, 
gathered  the  letters,  and  seated  herself  at  the 
table.  There  she  put  the  letters  in  another 
envelope  which  she  addressed  to  Verplank. 
While  writing  his  name,  her  hand  trembled, 
it  shook  on  the  paper  drops  of  ink.  These  she 
tried  to  blot,  and  made  a  smear. 

Trembling  still,  she  got  up,  went  to  the  tele 
phone,  and  attempted  to  speak.  At  first,  too 
overcome  to  do  so,  she  leaned  against  the  wall. 
It  did  not  seem  possible  that  she  could  do  this 
thing.  But  she  must,  she  knew.  At  last,  with 
an  effort,  she  spoke. 


THE    MONSTER  15 

"When  does  the  next  train  leave  San  Diego? 
One  moment.  Have  my.  servants  sent  to 
me;  my  servants,  yes,  and — and  order  a 
motor." 

Again  she  leaned  against  the  wall.  The 
room  had  become  intolerable.  Into  the  lan 
guors  of  the  air  a  suffocation  had  entered,  and 
it  was  unconsciously,  in  a  condition  semi-som 
nambulistic  that  she  found  herself  considering 
the  pink  of  the  ceiling,  then  the  rose-leaves 
woven  in  the  green  of  the  carpet,  the  dull  red 
of  the  table-cover,  the  darker  red  of  a  tassel, 
the  tall  vase  that  stood  on  the  table  and  in 
which  were  taller  lilies. 

There,  beneath  them  was  the  monster.  Its 
vibrations,  disseminating  through  the  room, 
were  silhouetted  on  the  walls.  She  could  not 
see  them,  but  she  could  feel  them.  They 
choked  her. 

But  now  her  servants  appeared.  Nervously, 
with  an  irritability  so  foreign  to  her,  that  they 
eyed  each  other  uncertainly,  she  gave  them 
hurried  commands.  These  obeyed  and  the 
porters  summoned,  she  passed,  choking  still, 
from  this  room,  the  secrets  of  which  the  walls 
detained. 

It  was  perhaps  preordered  that  they  should 
do  so.  Long  later,  in  looking  back,  she  real 
ised  that  destiny  then  was  having  its  say  with 


16  THE   MONSTER 

her,  and  realised  also  why.  At  the  time,  how 
ever,  she  was  ignorant  of  two  incidents,  which, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  apparently  insignifi 
cant,  subsequently  became  the  reverse. 

One  incident  had  the  porters  for  agent;  the 
other  was  effected  by  a  maid  who  supervened. 
The  porters,  in  removing  the  luggage,  collided 
with  the  table.  The  inkstand,  the  tall  vase 
with  the  taller  lilies,  were  upset;  the  vase, 
spilling  water  and  flowers,  fell  broken  on  the 
floor;  from  the  stand,  ink  rippled  on  the  red  of 
the  cloth,  on  the  darker  red  of  the  tassels,  on 
the  envelope  which  Leilah  had  directed  to 
Verplank.  These  things,  a  maid,  summoned 
by  the  crash,  removed. 

When  Verplank  returned,  the  table  was 
bare. 

He  did  not  notice.  What  he  alone  noticed 
was  Leilah's  absence.  She  is  below,  he  told 
himself.  Then  precisely  as  she  had  summoned 
her  servants,  he  summoned  his. 

"Roberts,"  he  said  presently  to  a  man. 
"Find  Mrs:  Verplank.  Then  get  my  things 
together.  We  start  at  once." 

For  a  moment  the  man  considered  the  mas 
ter.  At  once  civilly  but  stolidly  he  spoke : 

"Mrs.  Verplank  has  gone,  sir." 

Verplank,  who  had  turned  on  his  heel, 
turned  back. 


THE    MONSTER  17 

"What?" 

"The  hotel  is  full  of  it,  sir.  When  I  found 
that  Mrs.  Verplank  was  leaving,  I— 

"What!"  Verplank,  in  angry  amazement, 
repeated. 

"Mrs.  Verplank  is  taking  the  limited,  sir. 
It  was  the  clerk  who  told  me." 

Then,  for  a  moment,  the  master  considered 
the  man.  At  the  simple  statement  his  mind 
had  become  like  a  sea  in  a  storm.  A  whirl 
wind  tossed  his  thoughts. 

But  Leilah  was  still  too  near,  her  caresses 
were  too  recent  for  him  to  be  able  to  realise 
that  she  had  actually  gone,  and  the  fact  that  he 
could  not  realise  it  disclosed  itself  in  those 
words  which  all  have  uttered,  all  at  least  be 
fore  whom  the  inexplicable  has  sprung: 

"It  is  impossible!" 

"Yes,  sir,  it  does  seem  most  unusual." 

Verplank  had  spoken  less  to  the  man  than 
to  himself,  and  for  a  moment  stood  engrossed 
in  that  futilest  of  human  endeavours,  the  effort 
to  read  a  riddle  of  which  the  only  GEdipus  is 
time. 

At  once  all  the  imaginable  causes  that  could 
have  contributed  to  it  danced  before  him  and 
vanished.  He  told  himself  that  Leilah's  dis 
appearance  might  be  an  attempt  at  some 
hide-and-go-seek  which  shortly  would  end. 


18  THE   MONSTER 

But  he  knew  her  to  be  incapable  of  such  non 
sense.  Immediately  he  decided  that  his  serv 
ant  was  in  error,  and  that  she  was  then  on  the 
yacht.  If  not,  then,  clearly  she  had  gone  mad, 
or  else— 

But  there  are  certain  hypotheses  which  cer 
tain  intellects  decline  to  stomach.  Yet  the  let 
ter  from  her  father  recurring  to  him,  he  did 
consider  the  possibility  that  she  might  have 
gone  because  of  some  secret  of  his  bachelor 
life.  Anything  may  be  distorted.  Unfolded 
by  her  father,  these  secrets,  which  in  them 
selves  were  not  very  dark,  might  be  made  to 
look  infernal,  and  could  readily  be  so  made  by 
this  man  who  was  not  only  just  the  one  to  do  it, 
but  who  would  have  an  object  in  so  doing. 
Always  he  had  been  inimical  to  Verplank,  and 
this,  the  abandoned  bridegroom  then  felt,  not 
on  his  account,  but  because  of  his  father. 

The  latter,  Effingham  Verplank,  had  been  a 
great  catch,  and  a  great  beau.  His  charm  had 
been  myrrh  and  cassia — and  nightshade,  as 
well — to  many  women,  among  others  to  an 
aunt  of  Leilah,  Hilda  Hemingway,  whose 
husband  had  called  him  out,  called  him 
abroad,  rather,  where  the  too  charming  Ver 
plank  waited  until  Hemingway  fired,  and  then 
shot  in  the  air.  He  considered  that  the  gen 
tlemanly  thing  to  do.  He  was,  perhaps,  cor- 


THE   MONSTER  19 

rect.  But  perhaps,  too,  it  was  hardly  worth 
while  to  go  abroad  to  do  it.  Yet,  however  that 
may  be,  the  attitude  of  the  injured  husband, 
while  no  doubt  equally  correct,  was  less  debon 
air.  He  obtained  a  divorce. 

The  matter  created  an  enormous  scandal,  in 
the  sedater  days  when  New  York  society  was 
a  small  and  early  family  party  and  scandals 
were  passing  rare.  But,  like  everything  else, 
it  was  forgotten,  even,  and  perhaps  particu 
larly  by  the  parties  directly  concerned.  Hem 
ingway  married  again;  the  precarious  Hilda 
married  also;  the  too  charming  Verplank  va 
cated  the  planet,  and  his  widow  went  a  great 
deal  into  the  world. 

This  lady  had  accepted  the  scandal,  as  she 
had  accepted  many  another,  with  a  serenity 
that  was  really  beautiful.  But,  then,  her  se 
ductive  husband  had  always  seemed  to  her  so 
perfectly  irresistible,  so  created  to  conquer, 
that — as  their  son  afterward  found  it  neces 
sary  to  explain — it  no  more  occurred  to  her  to 
sit  in  judgment  on  his  victims,  than  it  occurred 
to  her  to  sit  on  him.  With  not  only  philo 
sophic  wisdom,  but  in  the  true  spirit  of  Chris 
tian  charity,  she  overlooked  it  all. 

The  culminant  episode  in  the  matter — the 
death  of  the  volatile  Verplank — took  place  at 
an  hour  when  his  son  was  too  young  to  be  more 


20  THE   MONSTER 

than  aware  that  his  father  had  been  taken  away 
in  a  box.  Leilah  was  even  less  advanced.  It 
was  years  before  she  learned  of  her  aunt's  de 
linquencies.  When  she  did,  that  lady  had  also 
passed  away,  as  had  previously  passed  a  child 
of  hers,  one  that,  perhaps,  did  not  belong  to 
her  first  husband,  and,  certainly  not  to  her  sec 
ond,  the  result  being  that,  in  default  of  other 
heirs,  she  left  a  fortune  to  Leilah,  whose 
mother  had  left  her  another. 

When  her  mother  died,  Leilah  was  in  the 
nursery.  Her  father,  who  thereafter  aban 
doned  her  to  servants  and  governesses,  she  sel 
dom  saw.  When  she  did  see  him,  he  ignored 
her  completely.  It  was  a  way  he  had.  He 
ignored  also  and  quite  as  completely  the  son  of 
the  deadly  Verplank. 

To  make  up  for  it,  or  it  may  be  to  make 
trouble,  the  boy's  mother  never  regarded  Lei 
lah  otherwise  than  with  that  smile  of  sweet 
approbation  with  which  she  gratified  all  the 
world — all  the  world,  that  is,  save  those  only 
who  were  not  in  hers.  Among  the  gratified 
were  the  Arlington  girls,  two  beauties,  of 
whom  the  elder,  Violet,  was  Leilah's  closest 
friend. 

It  was  at  Newport,  at  Violet's  wedding  to 
Silverstairs,  a  young  Englishman  who  had 
followed  her  from  Europe,  and  who  at  once 


THE   MONSTER  21 

took  her  back  there ;  it  was  at  this  ceremony,  in 
which  Leilah  participated  as  bridesmaid,  and 
Verplank  as  best  man,  it  was  then  that  both 
became  aware  of  a  joint  desire.  It  seemed  to 
them  that  they  were  born  to  love  each  other,  to 
love  always,  forever.  Forever! — in  a  world 
where  all  things  must  end,  and  do.  But  the 
eagerness  of  it  was  upon  them.  Leilah  wrote 
to  her  father.  Verplank  wrote  to  him  also. 

Matlack  Ogston  ignored  Verplank's  letter 
as  invariably  he  had  ignored  Verplank.  His 
daughter's  he  promptly  returned.  Across  it 
was  scrawled  one  word.  That  word  was  No. 

Interests  more  commonplace  had  mean 
while  transported  Verplank  from  Newport  to 
San  Francisco.  Informed  of  the  veto,  which 
to  Leilah  was  an  incentive  and  to  him  an  af 
front,  he  had  wired  her  to  meet  him  at  Coro- 
nado,  this  resort  in  Southern  California  which 
together  they  had  been  preparing  to  leave. 

The  night  previous,  on  a  yacht  chartered  at 
the  Golden  Gate,  Verplank  had  arrived.  It 
was  by  train,  the  next  morning,  that  Leilah  had 
come.  The  wedding  followed.  Before  them 
lay  a  world  of  delight. 

This  was  hardly  an  hour  since.  Now,  like 
a  bubble,  abruptly  that  world  had  burst. 

Yet  why? 

In  that  query  was  the  riddle  which  impo- 


22  THE   MONSTER 

tently  Verplank  was  trying  to  solve.  With  a 
clutch  at  a  possible  solution,  he  turned  to  his 
servant: 

"Roberts,  get  a  motor.  If  Mrs.  Verplank  is 
not  on  the  yacht,  I  will  take  a  special,  and 
follow  her." 

"Yes,  sir.  Shall  you  wish  me  to  go  with 
you?" 

"No,  stay  here  until  you  hear  from  me.  At 
any  moment  Mrs.  Verplank  may  return." 

But  Leilah  did  not  return.  Nor  did  the 
special,  in  which  Verplank  followed,  overtake 
her.  The  first  intelligence  of  her  that  reached 
him  was  the  announcement  of  her  engagement 
to  another  man. 


II 

IN  Paris,  many  moons  later,  an  Englishman, 
Howard  Tempest,  looked  in,  at  the  Opera, 
on  his  cousin,  Camille  de  Joyeuse.  This 
lady,  connected  by  birth  with  Britannia's  best, 
and,  through  her  husband,  with  the  Bourbons, 
delighted  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the  palate.  In 
appearance,  she  suggested  certain  designs  of 
Boucher;  in  colouring  and  in  manner,  the 
Pompadour.  Admirable  in  these  respects,  she 
was  admired  also,  for  her  gayety,  her  tireless 
smile,  and  her  chef.  She  had  one  of  the  best 
cooks  in  Paris — that  is  to  say,  in  the  world. 
Her  husband,  the  Due  de  Joyeuse,  harmon 
ised  very  perfectly  with  her.  He  had  a  head, 
empty,  but  noble,  an  air  vaguely  Regence.  A 
year  younger  than  herself,  Time  had  had  the 
impertinence  to  whiten  his  hair.  The  duchess 
wras  forty-two.  Those  unaware  of  the  fact 
fancied  her  twenty-eight.  The  error  greatly 
gratified  this  lady,  who,  familiarly,  was 
known  as  Muffins. 

One  evening  in  May,  Tempest  entered  her 
box,  saluted  her,  examined  the  house,  and,  as, 
in  a  crash  of  the  orchestra,  the  curtain  fell, 


24  THE   MONSTER 

seated  himself,  in  response  to  a  gesture,  beside 
her. 

Camille  de  Joyeuse  turned  to  him,  and  with 
that  smile  of  hers,  said:  "Do  not  fail  to  come 
on  Sunday,  Howard.  There  is  to  be  a  Ma 
dame  BaroufTska,  whom  I  want  you  to  meet. 
She  was  formerly  a  Mrs.  Verplank.  Barouff- 
ski  is  Number  Two." 

"Verplank!  Barouffski!  What  barbarous 
names!"  Tempest  exclaimed.  He  had  vivid 
red  hair,  violent  blue  eyes,  and  a  great  scarlet 
cicatrix  that  tore  one  side  of  his  face.  In  spite 
of  the  severity  of  his  evening  clothes,  he  looked 
rather  barbarous  himself.  "What  was  she,  a 
widow?" 

"Yes,  but  with  no  tombstone  to  show.  It 
appears  that  she  was  in  love  with  Verplank  for 
years,  married  him  one  minute  and  left  him 
the  next." 

Tempest  stifled  a  yawn.  "How  extremely 
fastidious!" 

"She  ran  away,  got  a  divorce,  met  BaroufT- 
ski  and  married  him." 

"Very  honourable  of  her,  certainly.  From 
what  pond  did  you  fish  her?" 

"The  Silverstairs'.  Violet  Silverstairs  is  an 
American  you  know— 

"Know!  I  should  say  I  did  know.  Though, 
if  I  did  not,  I  would  take  my  oath  to  it.  It's 


THE   MONSTER  25 

got  so  a  fellow  can't  stir  without  running  into 
one  of  them.  How  does  Louis  like  her?" 

Louis  was  the  duke. 

The  duchess  displayed  her  beautiful  false 
teeth.  "Oddly  enough,  when  he  was  in  the 
States,  he  went  hunting  with  her  Number 
One." 

"In  the  Rockies?"  Tempest,  with  sudden  in 
terest,  inquired.  "In  the  Dakotas?" 

"I  fancy  so.  It  was  a  place  called,  let  me 
see;  yes,  Long  Island,  I  think.  I  remember, 
he  said  it  was  very  jolly." 

Tempest  tossed  his  red  head.  "Her  Num 
ber  Two,  I  suppose,  is  that  chap  I  have  seen  at 
the  Little  Club.  The  Lord  knows  how  he  got 
there.  He  looks  like  a  thimblerigger." 

The  duchess  raised  her  opera-glass.  "Pos 
sibly.  Nowadays,  so  many  men  do,  don't  you 
think?  There  is  Marie  de  Fresnoy  with  the 
Helley-Quetgens !  You  will  have  her  next  to 
you  on  Sunday,  Howard.  Do  not  lacerate  her 
tender  heart." 

At  the  suggestion,  Tempest  made  a  face. 
His  expression  amused  Camille  de  Joyeuse. 
Indulgently  she  added:  "To  make  up  for  it 
you  shall  take  Madame  Barouffska  out." 

But  now  the  curtain  was  rising.  The  clear 
brilliance  of  the  house  faded  into  a  golden 
gloom. 


26  THE   MONSTER 

On  the  Sunday  following,  when  Tempest 
reached  the  Cours  la  Reine,  in  which  his 
cousin  resided,  there  was  a  motor  before  the 
perron,  and  from  it  a  woman  was  alighting. 
As  rhythmically,  with  a  grace  that  is  rare  in 
women  who  are  not  ballerines,  she  mounted 
the  stair,  Tempest  had  a  vision  of  a  figure,  tall 
and  slight,  of  a  mass  of  black  hair,  and  of  a 
neck  emerging  from  ermine.  In  the  ante 
room  above,  while  a  servant  took  from  her  her 
cloak  and  another  received  Tempest's  hat  and 
coat,  he  saw  that  she  was  extremely  beautiful. 

Immediately  a  footman,  throwing  open  a 
door,  announced:  "Madame  la  comtesse  Ba- 
roufTska!"  He  added  at  once:  "Lord  Howard 
Tempest!" 

In  this  marriage  of  their  names  they  entered 
a  drawing  room  in  which  were  the  Joyeuses, 
the  Fresnoys,  the  Silverstairs;  others,  also, 
who  momentarily  were  indistinguishable.  The 
room — large,  wide,  high-ceiled — was  decorat 
ed  gravely,  with  infinite  taste.  Beyond  it,  a 
suite  of  salons  extended. 

Camille  de  Joyeuse,  advancing  to  meet  her 
guests,  presented  Tempest  to  Mme.  Baroufl- 
ska. 

In  a  voice  which,  if  a  trifle  high,  was  fluted, 
the  duchess  added: 

"My  dear,  this  cousin  of  mine  has  a  terrible 


THE   MONSTER  27 

reputation,  and  that,  I  am  sure,  will  commend 
him  to  you." 

With  the  semblance  of  a  smile,  Mme.  Ba- 
rouffska  replied: 

"You  know  I  am  never  quite  able  to  decide 
just  what  construction  to  put  on  your  re 
marks." 

'Tut  the  worst,  put  the  worst!"  answered  the 
duchess,  whose  costume  left  her  splendidly 
nude.  From  a  billowy  corsage  her  shoulders 
and  bust  emerged  as  though  rising  through 
foam,  while  the  light  gold  tissue  of  her  gown 
accentuated  the  royal  outlines  of  her  figure. 

Leilah  Barouffska,  slenderer,  taller,  wholly 
in  white,  contrasted  etherially  with  her. 
Turning  to  Tempest  she  said : 

"Lord  Howard,  I  have  heard  so  much  that 
is  interesting  about  you." 

"Not  from  Muffins,  then." 

"Yes,  but  also  from  Silverstairs.  He  told 
me  that  you  are  the  best  gentleman  jockey  in 
England  and  a  Sanskrit  scholar  besides." 

"Oh,  I  can  straddle  a  horse,  if  it  comes  to 
that,  but  otherwise  he  exaggerates.  He  has 
caught  that  from  his  wife — unless  it  happens 
to  be  from  her  sister." 

At  mention  of  the  girl,  Leilah,  who  had 
been  looking  across  the  room,  turned  to  Tem 
pest  again.  In  looking  she  saw  this  young 


28  THE   MONSTER 

woman  whose  allurements — and  possibilities- 
were  generally  regarded  as  excessive.  Recently 
she  had  become   engaged — perhaps   for   the 
tenth  time.    Coincidentally  was  the  announce 
ment  that  she  was  going  in  for  light  opera. 
Now,  in  reference  to  her,  Leilah  said: 
"You  have  met  Aurelia,  then?" 
"I  found  it  very  difficult  not  to." 
"And  this  young  Lord  Buttercups  to  whom 
she  is  engaged,  is  he  nice?" 

Tempest  adjusted  his  monocle.  "Very.  A 
trifle  wrong  in  the  upper  story.  So  was  his 
father.  So  was  his  grandfather.  A  fine  old 
English  family." 

Faintly,  as  before,  Leilah  smiled.  "I 
understand  that  Aurelia  is  studying  for  the 
stage.  Such  a  queer  idea,  don't  you  think— 
for  an  American  heiress,  I  mean." 

Tempest,   extracting  his  eyeglass,   nodded. 
"Nowadays,  unless  an  idea  is  queer,  it  can 
hardly  be  called  an  idea  at  all.    But  I  am  glad 
this  young  person  is  studying  something.  When 
she  went  to  school  she  must  have  been  taught 
everything  which  it  is  easiest  to  forget." 
A  servant  announced : 
"His  Excellency,  Mustim  Pasha!" 
The  man  who  entered  was  short  and  stout. 
He  had  a  full  black  beard,  and  the  appear 
ance,  slightly  Hebraic,  which  Turks  possess. 


THE   MONSTER  29 

After  M.  de  Joyeuse  had  greeted  him,  he  salut 
ed  the  duchess. 

Beyond,  on  a  sofa,  Violet  Silverstairs  sat 
talking  to  the  Baronne  de  Fresnoy,  a  young 
woman  who  looked  very  much  as  might  a 
statuette  of  Tanagra,  to  which  Grevin  had 
given  two  big  blue  circles  for  eyes,  and  a  small 
pink  one  for  mouth,  but  a  statuette  articulated, 
perhaps,  by  Eros,  and  costumed,  certainly,  by 
the  Rue  de  la  Paix — though  a  shade  less  artis 
tically  than  Lady  Silverstairs,  who  always 
seemed  to  have  just  issued  from  some  paradise 
inhabited  solely  by  poet-modistes,  and  who,  in 
addition,  possessed  what  Mme.  de  Fresnoy 
lacked,  a  face  delicately  and  rarely  patri 
cian. 

Adjacently  was  her  sister,  Aurelia,  a  girl 
with  a  face  like  an  opening  rose,  and  a  frock 
of  such  astonishing  simplicity  that  it  looked 
both  virginal  and  ruinous.  This  young  person 
had  the  loveliest  eyes  imaginable.  In  them 
and  about  an  uncommonly  bewitching  mouth 
was  an  expression  quite  ideally  ingenue  which, 
when  least  expected,  it  amused  her  to  trans 
form  into  one  of  extreme  effrontery. 

On  one  side  of  her  was  Lord  Buttercups,  an 
English  youth,  small,  snubnosed,  stupid.  On 
the  other  lounged  a  Roman,  Prince  Farnese,  a 
remarkably  fine-looking  pauper. 


30  THE   MONSTER 

Turning  from  the  girl's  sister  to  the  Turk, 
the  young  baroness  called: 

"Here,  Musty,  come  and  make  love  to  us." 

The  Asiatic  was  about  to  abandon  Mme.  de 
Joyeuse,  when  doors  at  the  farther  end  of  the 
room  were  thrown  open,  and  the  duchess  put 
a  hand  on  his  arm. 

At  table,  Tempest,  who  had  taken  Leilah 
Barouffska  out,  found  his  seat  indicated  beside 
her.  At  his  left  was  Mme.  de  Fresnoy,  whom 
he  detested.  He  turned  to  the  American.  At 
the  moment  some  preoccupation,  a  nostalgia  or 
a  regret,  contracted  the  angle  of  her  mouth. 
The  contraction  gave  her  the  expression  which 
those  display  who  have  deeply  suffered  either 
from  some  long  malady  or  from  some  perilous 
constraint. 

Mechanically,  Tempest  considered  a  dish 
which  a  footman,  his  hands  gloved  in  silk, 
was  presenting.  When  he  again  turned  to  the 
American,  it  was  as  though  a  curtain  had  fall 
en  or  risen.  Her  face  had  lighted,  and  it  was 
with  an  entirely  worldly  air  that  she  put  be 
fore  him  this  unworldly  question : 

"Do  you  believe  in  fate?" 

Tempest  laughed.  "Not  on  an  empty 
stomach.  I  believe  then  in  nothing  but  vir 
tue." 

Leilah  put  down  her  spoon.     "It  seems  to 


THE   MONSTER  31 

me  that  our  lives  are  sketched  in  advance.  It 
may  be  that  we  have  the  power  to  amplify  in 
cidents  or  to  curtail  them,  but  the  events  them 
selves  remain  unchanged.  They  are  there  in 
our  paths  awaiting  us.  Though  why  they  are 
there- 

As  was  usual  with  her,  she  spoke  with  little 
pauses,  in  a  voice  that  caressed  the  ear.  Now 
she  stopped  and  raised  the  spoon,  in  which  was 
almond  soup. 

Tempest  took  a  sip  of  Madeira.  "A  pal  of 
mine,  a  chap  I  never  met  for  a  number  of 
reasons,  though  particularly,  I  suppose,  be 
cause  he  died  two  thousand  years  ago,  well,  he 
told  me  that  we  should  wish  things  to  be  as 
they  are.  I  have  no  quarrel  with  fate.  But 
if  you  have,  or  do  have— 

A  maitre  d'hotel,  after  presenting  a  carp 
that  had  been  arranged  as  though  swimming 
in  saffron,  was  supervising  its  service. 

"Padapoulos,"  exclaimed  the  young  Baron- 
ne  de  Fresnoy,  whom  the  sight  of  the  fish 
had,  perhaps,  excited,  uPadapoulos  told  me 
that  he  dined  best  on  an  orchid  soup,  a  mousse 
of  aubergine,  and  the  maxims  of  Confucius." 

"Padapoulos,"  the  legate  of  the  Sublime 
Porte  gravely  commented,  "is  a  poet,  and  a 
Greek.  Add  those  two  things  together,  and 
you  get — you  get— 


THE   MONSTER 

"Nothing  to  eat!"  the  young  baroness,  with 
an  explosion  of  little  laughs,  threw  at  him. 
" Musty !"  she  cried.  "Whom  were  you  with  at 
the  Varietes  last  night?  I  saw  you.  Yes,  I 
did.  Oh,  Musty,  who  would  have  thought 
that  you  would  be  unfaithful  to  me!" 

"These  Roumis!"  the  Turk  mentally  ex 
claimed.  "If  a  wife  of  mine  talked  in  that 
way  I  would  have  her  impaled." 

Beyond,  across  an  opulent  bosom,  de  Joy- 
euse  and  Silverstairs  were  talking  sport.  They 
delighted  in  things  that  men  have  always 
loved,  the  pursuit  of  prey,  the  joy  of  killing, 
the  murderous  serenity  of  the  woods. 

Farther  up  was  Aurelia.  As  before,  she  had 
Buttercups  on  one  side,  Farnese  on  the  other. 
She  poked  at  the  former. 

"That  horrid  de  Fresnoy  woman  is  trying  to 
flirt  with  you,  Parsnips.  Now,  don't  deny  it. 
I  don't  blame  her.  You  are  too  good-looking. 
When  we  are  married — if  we  ever  are — I'll 
make  you  wear  a  veil.  You  shaVt  go  out 
except  in  a  closed  carriage.  Yes,  and  with 
some  big,  fat,  strapping  woman  to  look  after 
you. 

Beatifically  the  youth  considered  her. 
"Couldn't  you  do  that?" 

Delicately  Aureiia  raised  a  fork.  "I  shall 
have  my  own  affairs  to  attend  to."  For  a  sec- 


THE   MONSTER  33 

ond  she  nibbled.    "I  have  a  few  on  my  hands 


as  it  is." 


Buttercups  stabbed  at  his  plate.  "I,  too, 
may  have  business  of  my  own." 

"Business!  Business!"  The  girl  repeated. 
"You  are  so  commercial — just  like  all  the  no 
bility.  If  you  were  not  a  peer  you  would  be 
mistaken  for  one.  It's  quite  painful." 

"That  may  b-be,"  Buttercups  spluttered. 
"But  this  idea  of  yours  of  going  on  the  stage  is 
quite  as  p-painful  to  me." 

He  hesitated,  then,  as  though  uttering  a 
great  moral  truth,  threw  out: 

"It's  so  dreadful  to  have  your  name  in  the 
papers!" 

"And  still  more  dreadful  not  to!"  the  girl 
threw  back.  She  turned  to  Farnese.  "You 
do  nothing  but  eat!" 

With  large,  melancholy,  inconstant  eyes  the 
Italian  looked  at  her.  "It  is  my  one  consola 
tion  since  you  became  engaged  to  that  imbe 
cile." 

Aurelia  pecked  at  her  food.  "One  always 
feels  quite  safe  with  an  imbecile,  and  that  is  so 
restful.  Try  it  and  see." 

"I'd  like  to  try  it  with  you." 

Aurelia  put  down  her  fork.  "Am  I  your 
idea  of  an  imbecile?  You  are  flattering,  if 


insincere." 


34  THE   MONSTER 

Again  the  Roman  covered  her  with  his 
eyes.  "It  is  rather  difficult  to  be  the  one  and 
not  the  other.  But  I  am  perfectly  sincere 
in  saying  that  you  are  my  idea  of  per 
fection." 

"Thanks,  but,  then,  you  are  not  mine." 

"And  might  one  ask  what  yours  is?" 

Dreamily,  with  an  air  of  innocence  that  was 
infinite,  Aurelia  looked  at  him.  "You  will 
think  it  childish  of  me,  perhaps,  but,  like  all 
young  girls — like  all  young  and  inexperienced 
girls — I  have  an  ideal.  A  mere  maiden's  fancy, 
no  doubt,  and  yet  one  which  I  cherish  so.  It 
is  a  vision  which  at  times  I  have  of  a  blind 
man,  a  deaf  mute,  a  divine  creature,  invalid 
and  octogenarian,  who  would  not  know  what  I 
did  and  would  not  care." 

Pausing,  she  dropped  her  eyes  and  sadly 
shook  her  head.  "You  will  tell  me  that  he 
don't  exist." 

"He  might  be  manufactured,"  Farnese 
cheerfully  replied. 

Then  he,  too,  paused,  drank  of  the  wine  be 
fore  him,  and,  perhaps  stimulated  by  it,  whis 
pered: 

"Believe  me,  I  feel  as  though  I  could  cut 
my  throat  for  you." 

Maliciously  Aurelia  looked  up.  "When  a 
man  does  not  feel  that  way  he  has  no  feeling  at 


THE   MONSTER  35 

all.  One  might  even  say  that  he  is  quite  heart 
less." 

Across  the  table,  Tempest,  turning  again  to 
Leilah,  said:  "Monsieur  Barouffski  is  not 
here  to-night." 

At  the  remark,  instantly  in  her  face  its  for 
mer  expression  of  constraint  appeared. 

"No,  he  is  to  join  us  later." 

At  the  other  end,  where  the  duchess  sat, 
everybody  was  laughing.  The  lady  had  been 
giving  an  account  of  a  recent  bankruptcy,  that 
of  Lord  Auld  Reekie. 

"Heavens!"  Violet  Silverstairs  exclaimed. 
"What  will  become  of  Bobbles!" 

Bobbles  was  Lady  Auld  Reekie,  a  fair 
young  craft  of  light  timber  and  many  sails. 

Camille  de  Joyeuse,  summoning  her  dili 
gent  smile,  replied:  "She  will  go  into  the 
hands  of  a  receiver." 

Another  jest  followed,  and  presently,  in 
the  contagion  of  it  almost  the  entire  table 
joined. 

The  delicately  toxic  fare,  the  slightly  emo 
tionalising  wines,  loosened  tongues,  robbing 
them  of  discretion,  and,  before  the  servants,  as 
though  the  latter  were  deaf  and  dumb,  hosts 
and  guests  revealed  their  naked  minds. 

"It  is  rotten  to  talk  in  that  way  before  these 
men,"  Tempest  exclaimed.  "They  get  their 


36  THE   MONSTER 

wages  with  lessons  in  anarchy  thrown  in.  It's 
too  much." 

"I  had  not  heard,"  Leilah  replied.  "I  was 
thinking  of  that  friend  of  yours  whom  you 
never  met." 

Tempest  laughed.  uThe  one  who  said  we 
should  wish  things  to  be  as  they  are?  Ah, 
well!  I  am  afraid  I  am  not  up  to  that  yet." 

"Nor  I.  But  who  was  he,  if  one  may  ask? 
Not  Aristotle?" 

"No,  but,  by  the  way,  do  you  know  whom 
Aristotle  is  supposed  to  be,  or  rather  to  have 
become?  Herbert  Spencer!  An  occultist 
told  me.  He  told  me  also  such  a  curious  story. 
You  have  heard,  have  you  not,  of  Apollonius 
of  Tyana?  Then  you  may  remember  it  is  said 
of  him  that  he  healed  the  sick,  raised  the  dead, 
knew  all  things  save  the  caresses  of  women, 
and  spoke  every  language  including  that  of 
colours.  Well,  the  occultist  told  me  that  Jesus 
was  a  rabbi  who  surrendered  his  entity  to  the 
Christ,  and  afterward  reappeared  here  as 
Apollonius.  He  said,  too,  that  he  was  not 
crucified.  Crucifixion,  you  know,  is  merely 
the  symbol  of  initiation." 

"And  whom  did  he  say  was  the  Christ?" 

"An  envoy  from  a  higher  sphere." 

Leilah  inclined  her  head.    "Yes,  and  there 


THE   MONSTER  37 

have,  I  believe,  been  others.  From  zeniths  or 
from  nadirs  unknown  to  us,  from  planes,  let  us 
say,  where  all  beatitudes  are  as  usual  as  all 
shames  are  common  here,  spirits  commissioned 
to  regenerate  the  hearts  of  man  pass  into  the 
slums  of  space.  Confident,  with  a  crown  of 
light  they  come,  only  to  return  with  one  of 
thorns." 

Tempest  turned  squarely  in  his  chair.  "That 
is  a  singularly  beautiful  idea!" 

Again  Leilah  inclined  her  head.  "It  is 
beautiful.  It  is  beautiful  to  think  that  earth 
ward  from  some  chromatic  star  the  soul  of 
Krishna  may  have  sunk.  But  the  idea  is  not 
mine.  I  found  it  in  the  Vidya." 

This  last  statement  was  lost.  Mme.  de 
Fresnoy  was  insisting  on  Tempest's  attention. 
Meanwhile  a  cygnet,  its  plumage  replaced,  a 
pond  lily  in  its  ochre  beak,  had  been  presented, 
carved  and  served.  A  salad,  known  as  Half- 
Mourning,  a  composition  of  artichoke  hearts 
and  Piedmontese  truffles,  had  departed  with  it. 
Now  sweets  had  come,  pastry  light  as  a  caress, 
volatile  as  an  essence,  that  pastry  of  which  the 
art  is  known  only  to  the  Oriental  and  the  oc 
casional  cordon  bleu. 

Devoutly,  with  an  air  of  invoking  the 
Prophet,  the  Turk  was  absorbing  it. 

The  young  Baronne  de  Fresnoy,  abandon- 


38  THE   MONSTER 

ing  Tempest,  looked  at  him.  With  a  wicked 
glitter  in  her  big  blue  eyes  she  called: 

"Musty!    Are  you  thinking  of  me?" 

The  pasha  was  framing  a  reply,  a  reply  per 
haps  rather  bald,  when  Camille  de  Joyeuse 
also  addressed  him.  Presently  she  stood  up. 
The  others  imitated  her.  The  gayeties  of  the 
table  were  abandoned  for  the  brilliance  of  the 
salons  beyond. 

Tempest,  who  had  accompanied  Leilah  Bar- 
ouffska  said,  as  she  seated  herself: 

"Are  you  to  remain  in  Paris?" 

Before  answering,  she  looked  up  at  him,  for 
he  was  standing.  "Who  can  tell  what  one  will 
do?  But  I  fancy  so.  We  have  taken  a  house 
in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe." 

"In  the  rue  de  la  Pompe!"  Tempest  ex 
claimed.  "That  is  where  I  live."  He  smiled. 
The  fact  that  they  were  neighbours  seemed  to 
constitute  a  bond.  "Whereabouts  in  the  rue 
de  la  Pompe?" 

"Next  to  the  church." 

"Do  you  find  it  convenient?" 

A  servant  announced: 

"Monsieur  and  madame  Spencer-Poole!" 

"You  mean,"  Leilah  replied,  "am  I  a  Cath 
olic?  No,  I  am  an  Episcopalian.  But  my 
views,  I  fear,  are  not  orthodox.  I  have  got 
so  far  that  I  believe  fully  in  the  Vidya." 


THE   MONSTER  39 

She  had  cited  the  book  at  the  dinner  table 
but,  at  the  time,  distracted  by  Marie  de  Fres- 
noy,  Tempest  had  not  heard ;  now  he  exclaim 
ed  at  it. 

"The  Vidya!  Of  all  things!  Why  not  the 
Upanishads?" 

A  servant  announced: 

"Madame  la  marquise  de  Charleroi!" 

Leilah  made  a  little  gesture.  "The  Upan 
ishads,  too.  I  have  great  faith  in  them  also. 
Their  conceptions  seem  to  me  the  most  per 
fect  that  the  human  mind  has  evolved,  that  is, 
if  it  were  a  human  mind  that  evolved 
them." 

A  servant  announced: 

"Madame  la  princesse  Orlonna!" 

"What  particularly  impressed  you  in 
them?"  Tempest  asked. 

"The  demonstration  that  life  is  a  laboratory 
in  which  the  strength  of  the  soul  is  tried." 

"And  in  the  Vidya?" 

"The  fact  that  selfishness  is  the  root  of  evil. 
That  impressed  me  very  much,  primarily  I 
suppose  because  it  is  true,  but  chiefly  I  think 
because  I  had  not  realized  it  before." 

Tempest  nodded.  Never  had  he  heard  a 
mondaine  cite  the  Upanishads.  In  no  drawing 
room  had  he  ever  heard  the  Vidya  mentioned. 
In  his  life  he  had  not  dreamed  of  having  a 


40  THE   MONSTER 

digest  of  each  produced  in  an  atmosphere  drip 
ping  with  frivolities.  As  he  nodded  he  re 
considered  this  woman.  From  the  first  he  had 
realized  that  she  differed  from  the  ordinary 
society  type.  Now  he  saw  that  she  belonged  to 
a  superior  world. 

"Do  you  not  admire  them,  too?"  Leilah, 
who  had  also  been  considering  him,  inquired. 

Tempest  adjusted  his  monocle.  "You  see, 
you  know,  the  Self,  the  All-Self,  the  One,  the 
oneness  of  self  with  everything,  the  oneness 
of  all  things  with  One,  these  minor  motifs  of 
theirs  I  may  admire  but  I  do  not  grasp.  On 
the  contrary,  there  is  a  certain  voluminous 
complexity  about  them  that  makes  me  gasp. 
None  the  less  they  advance  certain  ideas  which, 
while  curious  to  the  few  and  to  the  many  ab 
surd,  are  yet  so  mathematically  evident;  the 
fact  for  instance— 

A  servant  announced : 

"His  Highness  monseigneur  le  prince  Paul 
de  Montebianco!" 

"Monsieur  Harris!" 

The  salons  were  becoming  filled.  The  floor 
was  swept  by  trains  brief  but  brilliant.  There 
was  a  multiplication  of  black  coats,  a  renewed 
animation,  a  mounting  murmur  in  which  oc 
casionally  the  name  of  a  new  arrival  was  lost 

The  servant  announced : 


THE  MONSTER  41 

"Monsieur  le  vicomte  and  madame  la  vi- 
comtesse  de  Helley-Quetgen!" 

"Madame  la  princesse  Zubaroff ! 

"Monsieur  d'Arcy!" 

"Monsieur  le  comte  Barouffski!" 

The  last  of  these,  a  large  man,  very  fair, 
with  grey-green  eyes,  had  a  studied  manner 
which,  however,  his  voice  relieved.  As  he 
advanced  and  addressed  Mme.  de  Joyeuse,  it 
sounded  supple  and  silken,  as  indeed  most 
Slav  voices  do. 

Already  groups  had  formed.  The  corner 
in  which  Tempest  stood  before  Leilah  de 
veloped  another.  The  Spencer-Pooles  ap 
proached.  With  them  was  d'Arcy,  a  young 
man  abominably  good  looking,  famous  for  the 
prodigious  variety  of  his  affairs. 

Tempest  who  had  continued  talking,  who 
had  even  been  expounding  and  who  now  felt 
that  he  had  been  holding  forth,  moved  on. 
He  wanted  to  smoke  and  being  an  habitue  of 
the  household,  he  knew  where  the  smoking 
room  was. 

There,  before  an  open  fire,  his  hands  behind 
his  back,  in  that  after-dinner  attitude  which 
some  men  assume,  M.  de  Joyeuse  stood.  He 
was  telling  of  a  stag  hunt  that  had  been  held 
at  Monplaisir,  his  estate. 

The  duke  was  not  an  impressionist,  his  des- 


42  THE   MONSTER 

cription  lacked  colour.  But  de  Fresnoy,  who 
had  been  present,  resaw  it  all;  the  sheen  of  the 
horses,  the  green  of  the  whippers-in,  the  pink 
coats  of  the  sportsmen,  the  blue  dolmans  of 
the  officers  that  had  ridden  over  from  a  garri 
son  near  by,  the  verdure  of  the  forest's  edge, 
the  view,  the  scramble,  the  run,  the  quarry,  the 
hallali  of  the  huntsman,  the  leaping  hounds, 
the  fastidious  ceremonial  of  the  death  and  the 
sky  of  pale  silk  which  draped  with  faint  gold 
the  magnificent  brutality  of  the  scene. 

"It  was  just  my  luck  to  have  missed  it," 
Silverstairs  threw  in. 

De  Joyeuse  turned  to  him.  "We  count  on 
you  next  autumn.  And  on  you  also,  mon 
vieux,"  he  added  to  Tempest  who  had  ap 
proached. 

Tempest  nodded.  He  was  lighting  a  cigar. 
The  operation  concluded,  he  drew  a  chair  be 
side  Silverstairs.  "Now  tell  me  all  about 
Madame  B." 

Silverstairs  eyed  him  quizzingly.  "She  in 
terests  you?" 

"Enormously." 

"Then  look  out  for  Barouffski  whom  she 
interests  still  more." 

Tempest  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "Was  it 
her  interest  in  Number  One  or  Number  One's 
interest  in  her  that  declined?" 


THE   MONSTER  43 

"You  mean  Verplank?" 

"I  suppose  I  do.  Anyway  I  mean  her  first 
husband.  Why  were  they  divorced?" 

"Why?  But  my  dear  Tempest,  divorce  in 
the  States  is  what  racing  is  with  us,  a  national 
amusement.  Everybody  takes  a  hand  in  it." 

"The  right  or  the  left?" 

"Both  I  fancy.  Though  in  the  case  of 
Madame  B.  I  have  an  idea  that  the  right 
turned  out  to  be  wrong." 

Tempest  flicked  the  ashes  from  his  cigar.  "I 
may  compliment  you,  Silverstairs.  You  have 
a  manner  of  expressing  yourself  which  is  high 
ly  cryptic.  But  now,  to  an  every  day  sort  of 
chap  like  myself,  would  you  mind  being  less 
abstruse?" 

"I  should  feel  sordid  if  I  refused.  Ver 
plank  is  a  very  good  sort,  whereas  this  Ba- 
rouffski  is  a  rotter." 

Tempest  bowed.  "Thank  you  for  descend 
ing  to  my  level.  The  long  and  short  of  it  is 
that  she  has  made  a  mess  of  it.  Well,  most 
people  do.  I  don't  wonder  now  that  over  the 
soup  she  talked  about  fate." 

"Oh,  as  for  that,  after  certain  experiences  of 
my  own,  with  which,  pray  do  not  be  alarmed, 
I  have  no  intention  of  boring  you,  I  have 
stopped  wondering  at  anything  at  all." 

"Silverstairs,  in  ceasing  to  be  cryptic,  do 


44  THE   MONSTER 

not  become  Spartan.  My  cousin  told  me  that 
Joyeuse  hunted  with  this,  with  What's-his- 
name,  with — er— 

"With  Verplank?" 

"Yes,  that  he  had  hunted  with  him  in  the 
States.  And  that  reminds  me.  What  have 
you  decided  about  that  horse?" 

Silverstairs  pulled  at  his  straw-coloured 
moustache.  "I'll  let  you  know  to-morrow. 
When  are  you  to  be  at  home?" 

"Any  time  after  two." 

Silverstairs  nodded.  "Very  good,  I  will  drop 
in  on  you." 

From  beyond,  blue  and  vibrant,  came  the 
upper  notes  of  a  violin.  In  the  now  crowded 
salons  a  Roumanian,  the  rage  of  the  season, 
a  youth,  very  pale,  with  melancholy  eyes, 
flowing  hair  and  the  waist  of  a  girl,  was  execut 
ing  a  fantasy  of  his  own. 

De  Joyeuse  flicked  a  speck  from  his  sleeve, 
threw  back  his  noble  and  empty  head,  gave  a 
circular  look  of  inquiry,  a  little  gesture  of  in 
vitation,  and  accompanied  by  his  friends, 
sauntered  to  the  rooms  without. 

There,  Barouffski  after  saluting  Mme.  de 
Joyeuse  had  engaged  her  briefly  in  talk.  But 
her  attention  had  been  attracted  rather  than 
claimed  by  the  Montebiancan  prince,  a  young 
man  extremely  gentlemanly  and  equally 


THE   MONSTER  45 

modest  who,  with  that  diffidence  which  royals 
and  poets  share,  stood  bashfully  at  her  side. 

Barouffski,  bowing  again,  passed  on.  Dur 
ing  his  s.hort  and  entirely  fragmentary  con 
versation  with  Mme.  de  Joyeuse,  his  eyes  had 
rummaged  the  room. 

Leilah,  meanwhile,  rising  from  the  sofa 
where  she  had  been  seated,  moved  with  the 
inflammatory  d'Arcy  into  the  salon  beyond. 

Barouffski  would  have  followed.  But  the 
young  Baronne  de  Fresnoy  addressed  him. 
Perversely,  with  sudden  glimpses  of  little 
teeth  and  an  expression  of  glee  in  her  piquant 
face,  she  asked  : 

"Was  it  you  who  performed  that  high  act 
of  gallantry  at  Longchamps  to-day?" 

"Was  it  I  who  did  what?"  Barouffski  sur- 
prisedly  exclaimed. 

"What  was  it?"  asked  Aurelia,  who  with 
Buttercups  in  tow,  had  approached. 

But  Mme.  de  Fresnoy  waved  at  her.  "Go 
away  my  dear,  it  is  not  for  an  ingenue." 

"Ah  then,  but  you  see,"  Aurelia  indolently 
interjected,  "I  am  tired  of  being  an  ingenue. 
An  ingenue  is  supposed  to  be  in  a  state  of  con 
stant  surprise  and  that  is  so  exhausting." 

None  the  less,  with  Buttercups  still  in  tow 
she  betook  herself  to  a  corner  where  she  was 
promptly  joined  by  Farnese. 


46  THE   MONSTER 

Then  at  once  to  Barouffski,  to  Mustim 
Pasha,  to  the  Helley-Quetgens,  to  others  that 
stood  about,  the  young  baroness  related  a 
morsel  of  gossip,  the  report  of  which  had  been 
brought  her  but  a  moment  before,  a  story  that 
had  one  of  the  reigning  demireps  for  heroine 
and  for  hero  a  man  unidentified  by  the  ba- 
ronne's  informant,  the  tale  of  an  assault  com 
mitted  before  all  Paris,  before  all  Paris  that 
is,  that  happened  to  be  at  the  races  that  day; 
an  extravaganza  in  which  the  heroine,  erupt 
ing  suddenly  on  the  pelouse  before  the  Grand 
Stand,  had,  with  her  parasol,  struck  the  hero 
over  the  head  and  had  been  about  to  strike 
him  again,  when  he,  pinioning  her  arms  with 
his  own,  had  to  the  applause  of  everybody,  pre 
vented  the  second  assault  by  kissing  her 
through  her  veil;  after  which  releasing  the 
lady,  he  had  raised  his  hat  and  strolled  away. 

"Was  it  you,  Barouffski?"  Mme.  de  Fres- 
noy,  the  narrative  at  an  end,  inquired.  "Was 
it?" 

"I?    Nonsense!    Why  should  you  ask?" 

"It  would  be  just  like  you,  you  know.  Be 
sides,  I  hear  that  the  man  was  tall  and  good- 
looking." 

"You  are  exceedingly  complimentary.  But 
the  world  is  peopled  with  tall,  good-looking 


men." 


THE   MONSTER  47 

"Pas  tant  que  qa,"  laughed  the  baroness. 
"Well,  if  it  was  not  you,  perhaps  it  was  that 
man  who  is  just  coming  in." 

Involuntarily  Barouffski  turned,  while  a 
footman  bawled: 

"Monsieur  Verplank!" 


Ill 

It  was  in  circumstances  which,  if  not  dra 
matic,  were,  at  least,  uncommon,  that  Leilah 
Verplank  met  Barouffski. 

At  Los  Angeles,  after  her  flight  from 
Coronado,  she  caught  an  express  that  would 
have  taken  her  East.  Even  so,  it  could  not 
take  her  from  herself,  it  could  not  distance 
memory,  it  could  not  annihilate  the  past.  The 
consciousness  of  that  obsessed  her.  Each  of 
her  thoughts  became  a  separate  throb.  About 
her  head  formed  an  iron  band.  Her  body 
ached.  She  felt  hot  and  ill.  She  had  a  sense 
of  thirst,  a  sense,  too,  of  fear. 

In  the  compartment  where  she  sat,  a 
stranger  came.  She  hid  her  face,  covering  it 
with  her  hands.  The  stranger  sidled  in  be-, 
tween  them,  looked  her  in  the  eyes,  penetrated 
them,  permeated  her,  shook  long  shudders 
through  her,  shrieked  at  her:  "I  am  Fright!" 

She  cried  aloud.  No  one  heard.  She  got  to 
the  door. 

In  the  section  immediately  adjoining  were 
her  women.  Perplexed  at  the  start  by  her  un 
accountable  flight  and,  since  then,  alarmed  by 


50  THE   MONSTER 

the  abnormal  excitability  which  she  had  dis 
played,  both,  at  the  sight  of  her  then,  rushed  to 
her. 

Salt  Lake  was  the  first  possible  asylum. 
There,  weeks  later,  Leilah  arose  from  one  of 
those  attacks,  which,  for  lack  of  a  better  term, 
has  been  called  brain  fever. 

Like  fire,  fever  may  consume,  it  does  not 
necessarily  obliterate.  The  past  remained. 
But  in  that  lassitude  which  fever  leaves, 
Leilah  was  able  to  consider  it  with  a  wearied 
certainty  that  no  immediate  effort  could  be 
required  of  her  then. 

"Forget,"  some  considerate  and  subliminal 
self  admonished.  "Forget." 

Even  in  sleep  she  could  not  always  do  that. 
But  though  she  could  not  forget  the  past,  she 
could,  she  believed,  barricade  herself  against 
it.  The  idea  was  suggested  by  the  local  sheet 
in  which  she  found  an  item  about  neighbourly 
Nevada.  The  item  hung  a  hammock  for  her 
thoughts,  rested  her  mentally,  unrolled  a 
carpet  for  the  returning  steps  of  health. 

Verplank,  meanwhile,  misdirected  at  Los 
Angeles,  reached  San  Francisco.  Learning 
there  that  a  party  of  three  women  had,  that 
morning,  at  the  last  moment,  embarked  on 
the  Samoa  packet;  learning  also  that  of  these 
women  the  central  figure  projected,  or  seemed 


THE   MONSTER  51 

to  project,  Leilah's  silhouette,  he  wired  for 
his  yacht  and  sailed  away  in  pursuit.  But  an 
accident  supervening,  the  packet  reached 
Samoa  before  him.  When  Verplank  got  there 
the  boat  was  gone.  Still  in  pursuit  he  started 
for  the  austral  seas.  There,  the  mistake  dis 
covered,  hope  for  the  time  abandoned  him  and 
he  landed  in  Melbourne,  ignorant  that  the 
supremely  surgical  court  of  Nevada  was  am 
putating  him  from  his  wife. 

In  matters  of  this  solemnity,  the  Nevada 
statutes  require  that  one  of  the  parties  to  the 
operation  shall  have  resided  for  six  months 
within  the  state.  But  at  Carson,  the  capital,  a 
town  that  has  contrived  to  superpose  the  Puri 
tan  aspect  of  a  New  England  village  on  the 
vices  of  a  Malay  port,  in  this  city  Leilah 
learned  that  statutes  so  severe  were  not  enacted 
for  such  as  she. 

The  information,  tolerably  consoling,  was 
placed  before  her  by  a  young  Jew  who,  as  she 
alighted  from  the  train,  divined  her  errand, 
addressed  her  with  easy  Western  informality, 
put  a  card  in  her  hand,  offered  his  services, 
telling  her  as  he  did  so  that  if  she  retained  him 
he  would  have  her  free  in  no  time,  in  three 
months,  in  less.  It  was  a  mere  matter  of 
money,  he  explained,  and,  what  he  did  not  ex 
plain,  a  mere  matter  of  perjury  as  well,  the 


52  THE   MONSTER 

perjury  of  local  oafs  ready  to  swear  to  what 
ever  they  were  paid  for,  ready  to  testify  for 
instance  that  they  had  known  anybody  for  any 
required  length  of  time.  But  the  Jew  in  di 
vining  Leilah's  errand  divined  too  her  loyalty. 
In  speaking  of  fees,  he  kept  manoeuvres  and 
methods  to  himself. 

Leilah,  repelled  yet  beguiled,  succumbed. 
The  Jew  was  retained  and  in  a  wretched  inn 
her  things  were  unpacked.  At  once  a  rain 
of  days  began,  long,  loveless  days  in  which 
she  tried  to  starve  her  thoughts  into  submis 
sion  and  bear  the  cross  that  had  been  brought. 

The  effort  was  not  very  satisfactory.  The 
reason  why  she  should  have  a  cross  and  why 
it  should  be  borne  had  never  even  to  her  de 
vout  mind  been  adequately  explained.  Hither 
to  she  had  not  required  any  explanation  and 
not  unnaturally  perhaps  since  she  had  had  no 
cross  to  bear.  The  dogma  that  she  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  humanity  must  suffer  because 
of  the  natural  propensities  of  beings  that  never 
were,  she  had  accepted  as  only  such  dogmas 
can  be  accepted,  on  faith.  But  in  the  dismal 
solitudes  of  Carson,  faith  faded,  the  dogma 
seemed  absurd. 

Then  suddenly  that  which  in  her  ignorance 
she  took  to  be  chance,  supplied  a  superior  view. 
While  waiting  in  a  shop  for  a  slovenly  clerk  to 


THE  MONSTER  53 

do  up  a  package,  she  looked  at  a  shelf  on 
which  were  some  books — frayed,  bedrabbled, 
second  hand.  Among  them  was  a  treatise  on 
metallurgy,  another  on  horse-breeding,  a 
string  of  paper  covered  novels  and  the  Vidya. 

The  title,  which  conveyed  nothing,  for  that 
reason  attracted.  At  random  she  opened  the 
book.  A  paragraph  sprang  at  her: 

"From  debility  to  strength,  from  strength  to 
power,  from  power  to  glory,  from  glory  to  perfec 
tion,  from  plane  to  plane,  in  an  evolution  proceeding 
from  the  outward  to  the  inward,  from  the  material 
to  the  spiritual,  from  the  spiritual  to  the  divine, 
such  is  the  destiny  of  the  soul." 

Leilah  turned  a  page.  Another  paragraph 
leaped  out. 

"There  is  not  an  accident  in  our  lives,  not  a 
sorrow,  a  misfortune,  a  catastrophe,  a  happiness  that 
is  not  due  to  our  own  conduct  in  this  existence 
or  in  a  previous  one.  In  accordance  with  the 
nature  of  our  deeds  there  are  thrown  about  us  the 
tentacles  of  pain  or  the  arms  of  joy." 

But  the  slovenly  clerk  was  approaching. 
Leilah  closed  the  book,  asked  the  price,  paid 
for  it,  paid  for  the  other  purchase  and  went 
back  to  the  inn  where  during  the  rest  of  the  day 
she  read  the  drama  of  the  soul,  the  story  of  its 
emanation  from  the  ineffable,  of  its  surrender 


54  THE   MONSTER 

to  desire,  of  its  fall  into  matter,  of  its  birth  and 
rebirth  in  the  mansions  of  life  which  are  death, 
of  the  persistence  there  of  its  illusory  joys,  of 
the  recurrences  of  its  unenlightening  trials, 
until,  at  last,  some  memory  returning  of  what 
it  had  been  when  it  was  other  than  what  it  had 
become,  it  learns  at  last  to  conquer  desire  and 
accomplish  its  own  release. 

The  drama,  however  old,  was  new  to  Lei- 
lah,  and  at  first  not  very  clear.  But  beneath 
it  was  a  chain  of  causality,  the  demonstration 
that  this  life  is  the  sum  of  many  others,  the 
harvest  after  the  sowing,  and,  joined  to  the 
demonstration  were  corollaries  and  deductions 
which  showed  that  sorrow,  when  rightly 
viewed,  is  not  a  cross  but  a  gift,  a  boon  granted 
to  the  privileged. 

It  was  a  little  before  she  mastered  the  idea. 
When  she  had,  the  novelty  of  it  impressed.  At 
the  back  of  the  Vidya  was  a  list  of  rngn^te 
works.  She  wired  to  San  Francisco  for  them. 
Shortly  they  came,  and  in  their  companionship 
the  rain  of  long,  loveless  days  fell  by. 

Ultimately  she  sat  on  a  high  chair.  An  oaf 
asked  her  questions.  Others  testified.  On  the 
morrow  a  paper  was  brought  her.  It  had  on  it 
a  large  seal,  the  picture  of  a  big  building, 
words  that  were  engrossed,  others  in  script. 

She  was  free. 


THE   MONSTER  55 

The  knowledge  brought  no  exultation.  It 
was  a  hostage  to  joy,  one  of  the  many  that  she 
was  to  give. 

Meanwhile  she  had  written  to  Violet  Sil- 
verstairs  telling  her  that  she  had  separated 
from  Verplank,  and  asking  might  she  join  her. 
The  answer,  which  was  cabled,  told  her  to 
come.  That  day  she  started. 

The  town  house  of  the  Earls  of  Silverstairs 
is  in  Belgrave  Square.  There  are  worse  places. 
But  to  the  American  countess  the  discomforts 
of  the  residence  were  not  to  be  endured.  After 
one  season  she  declined  to  put  up  with  them. 
Pending  an  entire  modernisation  of  the  house, 
she  and  Silverstairs  migrated  to  Paris,  where 
they  took  an  apartment,  and  a  very  charming 
one,  in  the  rue  Francois  Premier. 

In  this  apartment  Leilah  was  made  to  feel 
that  she  was  with  friends,  one  of  whom,  how 
ever,  could  not  get  over  the  fact  that  she  could 
not  get  at  the  facts  in  the  matter. 

"See  here,  Leilah,"  Violet  Silverstairs  said 
aggrievedly,  not  once,  but  fifty  times,  "it  is 
downright  mean  of  you  to  keep  me  in  the  dark. 
What  was  it  that  he  did?  Tell  me." 

The  lady  had  known  Verplank,  as  she  had 
known  Leilah,  ever  since  she  had  known  any 
body.  They  had  grown  up  together.  Though 
not  related  by  blood,  they  were  by  choice, 


56  THE   MONSTER 

which  is  sometimes  thicker.  In  the  circum 
stances  it  was  perhaps  but  natural  that  she 
should  call  it  mean,  perhaps  but  human  that 
she  should  be  aggrieved. 

The  puzzle  of  the  situation  she  put  before 
her  husband. 

"What  do  you  suppose  it  can  be?"  she  asked. 

But  Silverstairs  had  no  surmises  to  hazard. 

"It  must  be  something  quite  too  dreadful," 
Violet  continued.  "One  of  those  things,  don't 
you  know,  that  are  said  to  change  your  whole 
life.  She  just  sits  about  and  reads  queer 
books." 

"Queer  books!"  Silverstairs  surprisedly  re 
peated. 

"Yes,  books  that  tell  of  planes  and  rounds 
and  cycles  and  chains  of  lives  and  rebirths  and 
redeaths.  She  believes  in  them,  too.  She  told 
me  so." 

Silverstairs  tugged  at  his  moustache.  "She 
might  as  well  believe  in  the  music  of  the 
spheres." 

Violet  looked  at  her  lord.  She  loved  him 
as  certain  delicately  organized  women  do  love 
men  who  are  merely  robust.  But  her  affec 
tion  did  not  warp  her  judgment.  She  know 
that  within  his  splendid  physique  was  a  spirit, 
valiant  perhaps,  but  obtuse. 

"Well,  why  not?"  she  retorted.    "Let  a  mi- 


THE   MONSTER  57 

crophone  receive  from  a  steel  plate  the  reflec 
tion  of  a  star,  and  sounds  are  emitted,  tones  pe 
culiar  to  the  star  itself.  Those  of  the  sun  are 
blatant.  Those  of  Arcturus  are  like  little  bells. 
Those  of  Sirius  are  as  sobs  from  a  zither. 
Everybody  knows  that.  Why  shouldn't  she 
believe  in  the  music  of  the  spheres?" 

"Gammon!"  cried  this  man  who  at  Eton  and 
Christ  Church  had  abundantly  acquired  every 
thing  which  is  most  useless.  "I  never  heard 
such  rot." 

"I  dare  say,  but  that  is  not  the  point.  The 
point  is  that  it  is  no  joke  to  her." 

Nor  was  it.  Leilah  at  first  refused  to  go 
anywhere,  to  see  any  one,  to  be  present  when 
there  were  guests.  But  Violet,  declaring  that 
she  would  have  no  moping  in  her  diggings, 
forced  her.  It  was  very  reluctantly  that  Leilah 
acceded.  After  a  while  she  did  so  as  a  matter 
of  course.  Finally,  as  was  inevitable,  she  ac 
cepted  invitations  elsewhere. 

It  was  what  Violet  had  aimed  at,  though  not 
at  all  at  the  result.  Yet  that,  Leilah,  who  had 
come  to  believe  in  karma,  afterward  regarded 
as  fate. 

Presently,  it  so  fell  about  that  at  one  dinner 
she  had  at  her  left  a  man  whom  she  did  not 
know,  whose  name  she  had  not  caught  and 
with  whom,  during  the  preliminary  courses, 


58  THE   MONSTER 

she  had  not  exchanged  a  word.  As  the  dinner 
progressed,  cigarettes  were  served.  Twice  she 
refused  them.  The  second  time,  as  she  turned 
again  to  the  man  at  her  right,  she  heard  a  cry, 
across  the  table  she  saw  a  face,  the  eyes  star 
ing,  the  features  elongated.  At  once  there  was 
an  uproar,  behind  her  there  was  a  crash,  she 
was  torn  bodily  from  her  chair,  a  piece  of  ta 
pestry  had  been  thrown  about  her  and  in  it 
she  was  rolled  on  the  floor  by  the  man  whom 
she  did  not  know. 

Probably,  at  no  dinner,  anywhere,  had  a 
woman  suffered  such  indignities.  She  was  so 
telling  herself  when  she  realised,  as  she  imme 
diately  did  realise,  that  the  man  and  others 
who  had  joined  him,  were  but  occupied  in 
saving  her  life.  Her  dress  had  caught  fire 
and  it  was  in  this  flaming  fashion,  hurled  on 
the  floor  by  a  stranger  and  there  brutalised  by 
him,  that  she  made  the  acquaintance  of  Count 
Kasimierz  BaroufTski. 

The  sack  of  her  costume  forced  her  to  return 
to  the  rue  Frangois  Premier,  where  at  five 
o'clock  the  next  day,  Barouffski  appeared.  He 
appeared  the  day  following,  the  day  after,  the 
day  after  that. 

These  attentions  Violet  Silverstairs  viewed 
with  suspicion. 

"I  verily  believe,"  she  said  to  Leilah,  "that 


THE   MONSTER  59 

it  was  that  polecat  who  set  you  on  fire,  and  if  he 
did  no  one  can  convince  me  that  he  did  not 
do  it  on  purpose." 

"  Violet!" 

"That's  right,  fly  at  me.  I  thought  you 
would.  Are  you  going  to  take  him?" 

In  an  elaborate  drawing  room  in  the  rue 
Francois  Premier  the  two  women  were  having 
tea.  Leilah,  without  replying,  raised  her  cup. 

Violet  cocked  an  eye  at  her.  "One  would 
have  thought  that  you  had  had  enough  of 
matrimony.  But  perhaps  your  intentions  are 
not  honourable." 

Leilah  reddened.  "Violet!"  she  again  ex 
claimed. 

"My  dear,"  Lady  Silverstairs  resumed,  "re 
member  that  you  are  no  longer  in  the  States. 
England  is  the  most  hypocritical  country  in 
Europe.  America  is  the  most  hypocritical 
country  in  the  world.  That  is  what  we  call 
progress.  But  France  being  old-fashioned 
and  behind  the  times  is  not  censorious.  I 
admit,  I  used  to  be.  But  I  am  not  censorious 
any  longer.  I  am  not  because  any  such  etat 
d'ame  while  advanced  is  not  becoming. 

"I  am  an  old  married  woman,"  added  the 
lady  who  was  not  twenty-two.  "But  if  I  were 
not,  if  for  instance  I  were  like  you,  free,  inde 
pendent  and  not  a  fright,  and  I  had  to  choose 


60  THE   MONSTER 

between  love  and  matrimony,  it  would  not  take 
me  a  moment  to  decide.  Not  one." 

Leilah  put  down  her  cup.  "Of  course  it 
would  not.  If  you  had  it  to  do  again  you 
would  marry  Silverstairs  and  you  would 
marry  for  love.  That  is  over  for  me,  over  for 
ever." 

Narrowly,  out  of  a  corner  of  an  eye,  Violet 
considered  her.  "He  was  such  a  brute,  was 
he?" 

"Who?    Gulian,  do  you  mean?" 

"I  suppose  so.  There  has  been  no  other, 
has  there?" 

"Violet!" 

It  was  at  this  juncture,  for  the  fiftieth  time, 
that  Lady  Silverstairs  exclaimed: 

"It  is  downright  mean  of  you  to  keep  me 
in  the  dark.  What  was  it  that  happened? 
Make  a  soiled  breast  of  it.  Do !" 

For  the  fiftieth  time  Leilah  protested: 

"Don't  ask  me.  Don't.  He  knows  and 
that  is  enough.  As  for  me  I  am  trying  to 
forget." 

"And  you  think  Barouffski  will  help  you. 
But  has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  if  you 
were  not  very  rich  he  might  lack  the  incen 
tive?" 

To  this  Leilah  assented.  "He  said  he  is 
poor." 


THE   MONSTER  61 

"At  least  he  does  not  exaggerate.  I  told 
Silverstairs  that  he  was  after  you  for  your 
money  and  he  said  that  was  what  he  married 
me  for.  So  he  did  and  I  married  him  for  his 
title.  It  was  a  fair  bargain.  Now  if  we  had 
it  to  do  over  I  would  say — I  would  say — well, 
I  would  say  that  it  is  better  to  have  loved  your 
husband  than  never  to  have  loved  at  all.  But 
six  months  hence,  if  you  had  it  to  do  over,  do 
you  think  you  could  say  as  much — or  as  little?" 

"At  least  I  could  say  that  I  did  not  marry 
for  a  title." 

"Well,  hardly,  particularly  a  Polish  one, 
though  I  daresay  even  that  might  be  useful  in 
the  servants'  hall.  But  what  could  you  say  you 
married  for?  It  isn't  love?" 

"No." 

"Nor  position?" 

"No." 

"Then  what  on  earth- 

"Violet,  how  hard  you  make  it  for  me. 
Can't  you  see  that  if  I  do,  it  will  be  for  pro 
tection?" 

"For  protection!  Merciful  fathers!  You 
talk  like  a  chorus  girl!  Protection  against 
what?  Against  whom?  Verplank?" 

"No."  Leilah  choking  down  something  in 
her  throat,  replied:  "Against  myself." 

"I    don't    understand    you,"    said    Violet 


62  THE   MONSTER 

slowly.  But  she  did  or  thought  she  did,  and 
that  night  told  Silverstairs  that  Leilah  was  still 
in  love  with  her  ex. 

It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  Leilah 
listened  to  the  Count  Kasimierz  Barouffski, 
who,  in  telling  her  that  he  was  poor,  omitted  to 
add  that  he  had  resources.  These  were  women 
and  cards.  It  is  a  business  like  another.  But 
even  to  his  nearest  friends,  to  Tyszkiewicz,  a 
compatriot,  and  Palencia,  a  Corsican,  he  did 
not  boast  of  it.  He  had  therefore  some  sense 
of  shame,  but  not  of  honour,  though  with 
humour  he  was  supplied.  A  man  with  some 
sense  of  humour  and  no  sense  of  honour  may 
go  far.  Barouffski  intended  to.  After  his 
volcanic  introduction  to  Leilah,  he  beheldMn 
her  not  the  woman  but  the  opportunity  which 
chance  had  sent  his  way.  To  grasp  that  he 
displayed  every  art  of  which  the  Slav  is  cap 
able.  He  did  more.  He  impressed  her  not 
with  the  nobility  of  his  name  but  of  his  nature. 
He  was  a  good  actor  and  though  at  first  un 
successful  he  was  not  discouraged.  It  was  an 
axiom  of  his  that  among  the  dice  of  destin^ 
there  is  always  a  golden  six.  It  waspxrolrTadV 
with  him  also  that  it  is  not  tossed  at  onceT 
To  deserve  it,  one  must  wait.  Barouffski 
waited.  Presently  fate  shook  the  box  before 
him.  The  golden  six  was  his. 


THE   MONSTER  63 

But  not  the  box. 

To  Leilah  the  mere  idea  of  matrimony 
was  abhorrent.  Yet  she  could  not  stop  indefi 
nitely  with  the  Silverstairs.  She  had  no  rela 
tives  with  whom  she  could  reside.  She  felt 
that  it  would  be  awkward  and  perhaps  equivo 
cal,  for  her  to  have  an  establishmenfrrf-ker 
own.  But  these  considerations  were  minor  be 
side  another — a  sense,  haunting  and  constant, 
that  the  excursion  to  Nevada  had  been  inade 
quate,  that  the  past  needed  a  surer  barri 
cade. 

It  was  not  a  husband  that  she  wanted.  Peace 
and  security  were  the  flesh-pots  that  she  craved. 
These  BaroufTski  offered  or  seemed  to — and 
it  was  these  finally  and  these  only  that  she 
agreed  to  accept. 

To  the  implied  stipulation  Barouffski  con 
sented  with  an  air  of  high  chivalry  but  also 
with  an  ambiguous  smile.  Given  the  golden 
six  of  her  income,  the  box  was  a  detail  to  him, 
and  it  was  in  these  circumstances  that  over  the 
perhaps  insecurely  locked  door  of  her  past, 
this  mask  mounted  guard. 

The  news  of  the  engagement,  filtering 
through  the  press,  was  cabled  to  the  States,  to 
gether  with  the  fact  that  Leilah  was  then  stop 
ping  in  the  rue  Frangois  Premier  with  Lady 
Silverstairs,  whose  portrait,  in  addition  to 


64  THE   MONSTER 

bogus  presentments  of  the  engaged  couple, 
were  printed  in  the  minor  sheets  that  circulate 
from  Xew  York  to  San  Francisco. 

On  arriving  from  Australia  at  the  latter  city, 
Verplank  happened  on  a  belated  copy.  Since 
he  had  gone  from  Coronado,  this,  the  first 
news  of  his  wife,  was  her  engagement  to  an 
other  man. 

In  his  amazement  his  thoughts  stuttered. 
Into  his  mind  entered  stretches  of  night.  He 
looked  at  the  sheet  without  seeing  it.  But  the 
paragraph  and  the  purport  of  it,  already  pho 
tographed  on  the  films  of  the  brain,  were 
prompting  him  unconsciously,  and  it  was  with 
out  really  knowing  what  he  was  saying  that  he 
exclaimed: 

"Leilah!  My  wife!  In  Paris!  Engaged 
to  another  man!" 

The  names,  the  words,  the  meaning  of 
them  all,  beat  on  his  brain  like  blows  of  a 
hammer. 

"Leilah!    My  wife!    In  Paris!    Engaged!" 

Again  he  looked  at  the  sheet.  "What  a 
damned  lie!"  he  ragingly  cried,  and,  rumpling 
the  paper,  threw  it  from  him. 

But  now,  the  names,  the  words,  the  meaning 
of  them  all,  well  beaten  into  him,  readjusted 
themselves,  presenting  a  picture  perfectly  de 
fined  and  possibly  real. 


THE   MONSTER  65 

He  stooped,  gathered  the  paper,  smoothed 
it,  read  the  account  again. 

After  all,  he  reflected,  it  might  be  that  she 
was  in  Paris  and,  if  there,  it  was  natural  that 
she  would  be  with  Violet  Silverstairs.  These 
two  items  were,  therefore,  not  improbably  cor 
rect.  That  view  reached,  the  deduction  fol 
lowed  :  If  they  are  correct,  the  other  may  be. 
Yet,  in  that  case,  he  argued,  obviously  she  must 
think  me  dead.  On  the  heels  of  this  second  de 
duction  an  impression  trod — the  ease  and  dis 
patch  with  which  she  had  become  consoled. 

Enraged  at  once,  angered  already  by  what 
he  had  taken  for  a  lie  and  thenjnfuriated  by 
what  he  took  for  truth,  th&^[nt£jti0r  incidents 
that  had  this  supreme  outrage  for  climax, 
leaped  at  him.  At  the  onslaught  the  primitive 
passions  flared,  and  it  was  with  the  impulse  of 
the  homicide  that  he  determined  to  seek  and 
ovenvhelm  this  wroman  who^acce^ted  men  and 
matters  with  such  entirexs^ans-g^jus? 

On  the  morrow  he  left  for  New  York.  Be 
fore  going  he  sent  a  cablegram  to  the  address 
which  the  paper  had  supplied: 

Am  just  apprised  of  the  studied  insult  of 
your  engagement  to  some  foreign  cad.  Leav 
ing  for  Paris  at  once. 

As  he  signed  it,  deeply,  beneath  the  breath, 
he  swore.  "That  will  show  her,"  he  added. 


66  THE   MONSTER 

It  so  happened  that  it  showed  her  nothing. 
Leilah  was  not  then  in  the  rue  Frangois 
Premier,  but  in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe,  where 
the  message  followed,  but  only  to  be  received 
by  Barouffski,  who  read  it  with  a  curious 
smile. 

Already  he  hated  Verplank,  who  had  not 
yet  acquired  a  hatred  for  him.  But  though 
that  hatred  had  not  been  acquired,  it  devel 
oped  tumultuously  when,  on  arriving  in  New 
York,  he  learned  that  not  merely  the  report  of 
the  engagement  was  true,  but  that  the  engage 
ment  had  since  resulted  in  a  marriage,  which 
itself  had  been  preceded  by  a  Nevada  divorce. 

In  comparison  to  all  that  had  occurred,  the 
divorce  seemed  at  the  time  almost  negligible. 
It  was  the  crowning  infamy  of  this  marriage 
which,  in  renewing  the  primitive  passions, 
aroused  in  Verplank  a  determination  not 
merely  to  seek  and  overwhelm  the  woman,  but 
to  seek  and  destroy  the  man.  The  marriage, 
he  decided  could  be  but  the  result  of  an  an 
terior  affair,  there  was  no  other  explanation  of 
it.  The  idea  that  had  come  to  him  at  Coro- 
nado,  the  possibility  that  she  might  have  left 
him  because  informed  of  some  affair  of  his 
own  and  which  since  then  he  had  examined 
again  and  again,  fell  utterly  away.  It  was  not 
because  of  errors  of  his  that  she  had  gone,  but 


THE   MONSTER  67 

of  her  own.  Then  to  his  anger 
at  her  was  added  a  hatred  of  Barouffski,  whom 
he  had  never  seen,  and  who,  without  having 
seen  Verplank,  hated  him  also,  hated  him  re 
trospectively  and  p  respectively,  hated  him  be 
cause  clearly  Leilah  had  been  his  and — where 
women  are  concerned,  all  things  being  possible 
—might  be  again. 

But  though  Barouffski  hated  Verplank  ac 
tively,  he  hated  him  vaguely,  as  one  must  when 
one  hates  the  unknown.  It  was  the  cablegram 
which,  in  supplying  the  personal  element, 
made  the  hate  concrete. 

"Foreign  cad,  eh?"  he  repeated,  with  a  curi 
ous  smile.  "Eh  bien,  nous  verrons,  we  shall 


see." 


Presently  the  opportunity  occurred.  For  it 
was  in  these  circumstances,  a  fortnight  after 
the  receipt  of  the  cablegram,  that,  directed  by 
the  young  Baronne  de  Fresnoy,  he  turned  and 
saw  Verplank  entering  the  room  where  he 
stood. 


IV 

With  the  unerring  instinct  of  the  man  of  the 
world,  Verplank,  on  entering  the  crowded 
salon,  divined  immediately,  among  all  the 
women  present,  the  hostess  whom  he  had  never 
seen. 

As  he  bent  over  her  hand,  the  duchess,  who 
had  not  an  idea  how  he  came  there,  said  in  her 
fluted  voice : 

"This  is  really  so  nice  of  you.  I  did  not 
know  you  were  in  Paris." 

"Nor  did  I — until  this  moment,"  answered 
Verplank,  looking  as  he  spoke  into  the  eyes 
of  his  hostess  who,  after  thejmgimperceptible 
glance  with  which  the  gafmd^mifr  judges  and 
classifies,  was  wondering  in  what  manner,  this 
man,  with  his  virile  face  and  impeccable  pres 
ence,  had  forced  Leilah  Barouffska  to  leave 
him. 

"But,"  he  added,  "Monsieur  de  Joyeuse 
whom  I  saw  this  afternoon  told  me  that  you 
would  be  at  home,  and  assured  me  that  I 
might  venture  to  present  my  homages." 

The  duchess  displayed  her  tireless  smile. 
"I  am  only  sorry  not  to  have  had  them  sooner." 


70  THE   MONSTER 

She  paused.  Between  her  smile,  the  edges  of 
her  teeth  showed,  false  but  beautiful.  "There 
is  Lady  Silverstairs  trying  to  get  you  to  look 
at  her,  and  very  well  worth  looking  at  she  is." 

Camille  de  Joyeuse  turned  for  a  moment 
to  the  reticent  young  prince  who  in  his  diffi 
dent  way  still  lingered  at  her  side. 

Beyond,  at  the  farther  end  of  the  room, 
notes  rippled.  Standing  near  a  grand  piano, 
the  Roumanian  with  the  flowing  hair  was 
preluding  a  fantasy  of  his  own. 

In  the  hush  that  succeeded,  Verplank  moved 
to  where  Violet  sat. 

Smilingly,  without  speaking,  she  gave  him 
her  hand  and  indicated  a  seat  beside  her. 
Then,  raising  a  fan,  she  whispered : 

"Demon!  What  have  you  done?  Where 
do  you  spring  from?  How  long  have  you 
been  in  Paris?" 

Verplank,  seating  himself,  answered: 

"I  got  here  this  morning.  Why  am  I  a 
demon?" 

From  behind  the  fan,  Violet  asked: 

"What  did  you  do  to  Leilah?  Why  did  she 
leave  you?" 

Verplank  folded  his  gloved  hands.  "That 
is  what  I  am  here  to  find  out." 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  don't 
know!" 


THE   MONSTER  71 

"I  have  not  an  idea — unless  it  was  because  of 
this  Count  Thingumagig." 

Violet  Silverstairs  furled  her  fan,  looked  at 
him,  looked  away,  looked  about  the  room.  At 
one  end  her  husband,  accompanied  by  de 
Joyeuse,  Tempest,  de  Fresnoy,  and  the  others, 
had  entered.  At  the  further  end  the  Rouma 
nian  dominated.  Supported  en  sounjjoe  by 
an  accompanist,  he  massed  sounds  and  dis 
persed  them,  concentrating  fujjgurations  of 
notes  from  which  echoing  showers  felT7~~Ffes- 
ently,  resuming  an  abandoned  measure,  he 
caressed  aj.argo^infinitely  sweet,  that  swooned 
in  the  languors  of  the  finale.  At  once  to  a 
murmur  of  bravos,  the  applause  of  gloved 
hands  and  a  cry  of  "Bis!"  raising  violin  and 
bow  above  his  head,  he  bent  double  to  the 
duchess,  his  flowing  hair  falling  like  a  veil 
before  him. 

"He  may  play  again,"  said  Violet.  "I  want 
to  talk  to  you.  Let  us  go  into  the  next 


room." 


As  Verplank  rose  at  her  bidding,  others  who 
had  been  seated,  rose  also.  Interrupted  con 
versations  were  more  animatedly  resumed.  A 
servant  announced  additional  names.  The  first 
salon  now  was  thronged.  The  second,  was 
filled.  Verplank  and  Violet  passed  on. 

Beyond  was   a   gallery.     At  the   entrance 


72  THE   MONSTER 

stood  a  woman,  her  face  averted,  talking  to  a 
man.  As  the  others  approached,  she  turned. 

At  sight  of  her  and  of  the  man,  Violet  would 
have  turned  also.  It  was  too  late. 

"Leilah!"  Verplank  exclaimed. 

For  a  second,  in  tragic  silence,  two  beings 
whom  love  had  joined  and  fate  had  separated, 
stood,  staring  into  each  other's  eyes. 

For  a  second  only.  At  once  the  man  inter 
posed  himself  between  them. 

"Monsieur!"  he  insolently  threw  out.  "My 
name  is  Barouffski." 

With  superior  tact  Lady  Silverstairs  inter 
vened.  "Good  evening,  Count.  It  never  oc 
curred  to  us  that  we  were  interrupting  a  tete-a- 
tete." 

She  paused.  Hostilely  the  two  men  were 
measuring  each  other.  In  Verplank's  face 
there  was  a  threat,  in  Barouffski's  there  was  a 
jeer,  in  Leilah's  there  was  an  expression  of 
absolute  terror.  Of  the  little  group  Violet 
alone  appeared  at  ease. 

"Leilah,"  she  added,  "don't  forget  that 
you  are  to  have  luncheon  with  me  to 
morrow.  Good  night,  my  dear.  Silverstairs 
and  I  will  be  going  soon.  Good  night, 
Barpuffski." 

She  smiled,  nodded,  took  Verplank's  arm, 
took  him  away.  But  the  arm  beneath  her  hand 


THE  MONSTER  73 

was  shaking  and  she  realised  that  it  shook 
with  rage. 

Sympathetically  she  looked  up  at  him.  "I 
thought  they  were  in  the  other  room  and  it 
was  just  to  avoid  a  thing  of  this  sort  that  I 
got  you  out  of  it.  You  won't  do  anything, 
will  you?" 

Verplank  now  had  got  control  of  himself, 
his  arm  no  longer  shook,  and  it  was  the  smile 
of  a  man  of  the  world,  the  smile  of  one  to 
whom  nothing  is  important  and  much  absurd, 
that  he  answered: 

"Why,  yes;  it  was  very  civil  of  this  chap 
to  introduce  himself.  I  shall  leave  a  card  on 
him.  Hello!  Here's  Silverstairs!  I  wonder 
if  he  will  introduce  himself,  too." 

The  young  earl  was  advancing,  his  hand 
outstretched.  "I  say!  I  saw  a  man  march 
ing  off  with  the  missis,  but  I  had  no  idea  it 
was  you.  Where  are  you  stopping?  Will  you 
dine  with  us  Tuesday?" 

"Yes,  do."  Violet  threw  in.  "Rue  Frangois 
Premier  at  eight." 

"I  shall  be  very  glad  to,"  Verplank  an 
swered.  He  turned  to  Silverstairs.  "I  am  at 
the  Ritz.  Stop  by  there  to-morrow  noon, 
won't  you,  and  let  me  take  you  somewhere  for 
luncheon?" 

Lady  Silverstairs  laughed  and  employing  a 


74  THE   MONSTER 

\4arkjisrxif  said:  "You  don't  say  turkey  to  me. 
There!"  she  exclaimed  as  Verplank  was  about 
to  protest.  "I  could  not  anyway." 

From  the  salon  beyond  came  a  woman's 
voice,  clear  and  rich,  rendering,  in  a  lascive 
contralto,  a  song  of  love  and  passion. 

The  Silverstairs  and  Verplank  approached. 
Meanwhile,  from  the  diva's  mouth,  notes 
darted  like  serpents  on  fire.  In  mounting 
fervour  the  aria  developed,  trailing,  as  it 
climbed,  words  such  as  amore,  speranza,  morir. 
A  breath  of  brutality  passed.  The  atmosphere 
became  charged  with  emanations  in  which  the 
perfume  of  women  mingled  with  the  desires 
of  men.  Still  the  aria  mounted,  it  coloured 
the  air,  projecting,  like  a  magic  lantern,  visions 
of  delight,  imperial  and  archaic,  that  ascended 
in  glittering  scales. 

Verplank,  detaching  himself  from  the  Sil 
verstairs,  felt  his  dumb  rage  renewed.  At  the 
moment  he  conceived  an  insane  idea  of  going 
below,  waiting  without  until  Barouffski  and 
Leilah  appeared  and  he  saw  himself,  confront 
ing  the  man,  tearing  the  woman  from  him, 
carrying  her  off  and  making  her  his  own. 

The  impulse  fell  from  him.  The  rage  that 
he  felt  at  the  man  deflected  into  rage  at  this 
woman  who  had  made  his  life  a  vacant  house 
and  for  what,  good  God!  And  why? 


THE   MONSTER  75 

In  a  cascade  of  flowers  and  flames  the  song 
was  ending.  There  was  new  applause,  the 
discreet  approbation  of  worldly  people,  easily 
pleased,  as  easily  bored  and  with  but  one  sure 
creed :  Not  too  much  of  anything. 

Verplank  must  also  have  had  enough.  When 
presently  the  Silverstairs  looked  about  for  him 
he  had  gone. 

Already  Violet  had  summarised  the  situa 
tion  to  her  lord.  Now,  perplexed  at  Ver- 
plank's  abrupt  disappearance,  she  said: 

"You  don't  suppose  that  anything  will  hap 
pen,  do  you?" 

Silverstairs,  bored  by  the  entertainment, 
anxious  only  to  get  away  where  he  could  have 
a  quiet  drink,  tugged  at  his  moustache  and 
with  unconscious  reminiscence  answered: 

"I  don't  know  and  I  don't  care.  I  don't 
care  what  happens  as  long  as  it  doesn't  happen 


to  me." 


"There  are  too  many  of  us,"  Verplank,  the 
day  following,  found  himself  saying  to  Silver- 
stairs. 

The  two  men  were  lunching  at  Voisin's. 

The  charming  resort  which,  since  the  pass 
ing  of  Very,  of  Vefour  and  the  Maison  Doree, 
has  become  the  ultimate  refuge  of  the  high 
gastronomic  muse  of  Savarin  and  of  Brisse 
was,  on  this  forenoon,  filled  with  its  usual 
clientele: — old  men  with  pink  cheeks,  young 
women  with  ravishing  hats,  cosmopolitan 
sportsmen,  ladies  of  both  worlds,  assortments 
of  what  Paris  calls  High  Life  and  pronounces 
Hig  Leaf. 

Without,  a  fog  draped  the  windows,  blurred 
the  movement  of  the  street,  transforming  it 
into  a  cinematograph  of  misty  silhouettes.  But 
within,  the  brilliant  damask,  the  glittering 
service,  the  studied  excellence  of  everything, 
produced  an  atmosphere  of  wealth  and  ease. 

Silverstairs,  after  swallowing  a  glass  of 
Chablis,  meditatively  lit  a  cigar.  But  medita 
tion  was  not  his  forte.  The  twentieth  of  his 
name,  he  was  tall  and  robust.  He  had  straw- 


78  THE   MONSTER 

coloured  hair,  blue  eyes,  a  skin  of  brick,  and 
an  appearance  of  simple  placidity.  At  the 
moment  he  was  mentally  fondling  certain 
reminiscences  of  the  Isis  and  certain  bouts  with 
bargees  there. 

"You  know,"  he  said  at  last,  "if  I  were  you  I 
would  just  march  up  to  him  and  knock  him 
down." 

Verplank  nodded.  "I  dare  say.  But  not  if 
he  had  taken  your  wife." 

The  suggestion,  penetrating  the  earl's  pla 
cidity,  punctured  it.  He  threw  back  his  head. 
"By  George!  If  he  had,  I'd  kill  him." 

"There,  you  see!" 

Silverstairs  puffed  at  his  cigar.  His  placid 
ity  now  was  reforming  itself. 

"Yes,"  he  answered.  "But  then  in  taking 
yours,  he  did  it  after  she  was  divorced.  You 
can't  have  him  out  for  that." 

"All  the  same  there  are  one  too  many  of 


us." 


Silverstairs  rilled  his  mouth  with  smoke. 
Longly,  with  an  air  of  considering  the  situa 
tion  he  expelled  it.  Then  he  said : 

"It  is  what  I  call  damned  awkward.  But 
what  the  deuce  can  you  do?" 

"What  can  I  do?"  Verplank  with  an  uplift 
of  the  chin  repeated.  "Why,  if  only  for  the 
manner  in  which  he  acted  last  night— 


THE  MONSTER  79 

"I  know,"  Silverstairs  interrupted.  "The 
missis  told  me.  He  behaved  like  a  fidgety 
Frenchman.  I  grant  you  that.  But  there  were 
no  words,  nothing  that  you  could  put  a  finger 


on." 


Through  an  adjacent  door  a  man  strolled  in. 
He  had  his  hat  on  and  in  one  gloved  hand  he 
held  a  thin  umbrella  of  which  the  handle  was 
studded  with  gold  nails.  With  the  other  hand 
he  smoothed  a  black  moustache.  Through  a 
monocle  he  was  surveying  the  room.  He 
looked  careless  and  cynical. 

Deferentially  a  maitre  d'hotel  addressed 
him.  Ignoring  the  man  he  waved  his  um 
brella  at  Silverstairs. 

Silverstairs  waved  his  hand.  He  turned  to 
Verplank.  "Here's  de  Fresnoy.  He  can  put 
us  straight.  Let's  ask  him  to  join  us." 

Rising,  he  greeted  the  Parisian,  invited  him 
to  the  table,  introduced  Verplank,  speaking  as 
he  did  so  in  French,  with  an  accent  frankly 
barbarous  which  de  Fresnoy  seemed  to  enjoy. 

The  latter  raised  his  hat  to  Verplank,  con 
fided  it  to  the  maitre  d'hotel,  gave  him  the 
umbrella  also,  while  another  waiter  drew  up 
for  him  a  chair. 

"Thanks,"  he  said  in  an  interval  of  these 
operations.  "I  see  you  have  breakfasted.  If 
you  don't  mind  my  eating  while  you  smoke — " 


80  THE   MONSTER 

Seating  himself  he  turned  to  the  waiter,  a 
man  short  and  stout,  completely  bald,  with 
large  dyed  whiskers  and  an  air  of  repressed 
satisfaction. 

"Listen,  Leopold,  and  note  Well  what  I  say. 
To  begin  with  do  not  attempt  to  tell  me  what 
you  wish  me  to  eat.  You  have  heard?  Good! 
Listen  again.  A  dozen  Ostendes,  an  omelette,  a 
pear.  Nothing  else.  Not  a  crumb.  Yes,  some 
EaudeVals.  Allez!" 

Leopold  bowed.  "Perfectly,  monsieur  le 
baron.  I  shall  have  the  honour  of  serving 
monsieur  le  baron  with  what  he  has  been  good 
enough  to  be  willing  to  desire." 

Again  the  waiter  bowed.  But  behind  the 
\kagmousnesp  of  his  speech  a  severity  had 
entered,  onewhich  intimated  that  in  this  pre 
serve  of  gastronomies  such  an  order  was  un 
worthy. 

"These  gentlemen?"  he  added,  his  eyes  mov 
ing  from  Verplank  to  Silverstairs.  "Some 
coffee?  A  liqueur?" 

But  now,  in  fluent  French,  Verplank  was  ad 
dressing  de  Fresnoy.  "Silverstairs  and  I  have 
been  having  an  argument.  In  your  quality  of 
Parisian,  will  you  tell  us  whether  a  man  can 
have  another  out  for  looking  impertinently  at 
him?" 

De  Fresnoy  adjusted  his  collar,  patted  his 


THE   MONSTER  81 

neck-cloth.  "But  certainly,  most  assuredly. 
To  look  impertinently  at  a  man  constitutes  an 
attack  on  his  self  esteem,  which  in  itself  is  an 
integral  part  of  his  moral  wealth.  To  omit  to 
return  a  man's  bow,  to  neglect  to  take  his 
proffered  hand,  to  regard  him  in  an  offensive 
manner,  are  one  and  all  so  many  assaults  on 
his  dignity." 

Verplank,  pleased  with  this  view  of  things, 
smiled.  "Thanks.  Mine  has  been  assailed  and 
I  was  in  doubt  how  to  rebuke  the  aggressor." 

"It  is  simple  as  Good  day.  You  have  only 
to  select  two  representatives  and  get  them  to 
put  themselves  in  communication  with  him.  If 
then  he  refuses  to  have  friends  of  his  meet 
yours,  or  if,  afterward,  he  will  neither  apolo 
gise  or  fight,  he  is  outlawed." 

De  Fresnoy,  as  he  spoke,  made  a  gesture,  a 
wide  movement  of  the  arm  which  indicated,  or 
was  intended  to  indicate,  the  uttermost  limits 
of  the  world. 

"It  is  Barouffski,"  Silverstairs,  with  some 
idea  that  de  Fresnoy  might  be  aware  of  the 
anterior  complication,  threw  out. 

"Barouffski!"  de  Fresnoy  repeated,  his  head 
held  appreciatively  a  little  to  one  side.  "In  a 
bout  he  is  very  clever.  Barring  d'Arcy, 
Helley-Quetgen" — and  myself  he  was  about  to 
add,  but  throwing  the  veil  he  desisted — "I 


82  THE   MONSTER 

don't  know  his  equal.  How  he  is  on  the  field, 
personally  I  cannot  say.  But  there,  the  absence 
of  buttons,  the  absence  of  masks,  the  inevitable 
emotion,  the  sight  of  the  other  man,  the  con 
sciousness  of  an  injury  to  be  maintained  or 
avenged,  the  consciousness  too  of  the  definite 
character  of  any  thrust  you  may  give  and  par 
ticularly  of  any  thrust  you  may  receive,  these 
things  have  such  an  effect  that  often  the  clever 
est  acts  like  a  fool.  On  the  boards,  fencing  is 
an  exercise,  it  is  an  amusement.  On  the  field, 
it  is  another  man's  blood — or  yours.  Though, 
after  all,  one  is  rarely  killed  except  by  one's 
seconds." 

He  turned  to  Verplank.  "You  fence?  Or 
is  it  that  you  shoot?" 

Verplank  leaned  back  in  his  chair.  "Oh,  I 
suppose  I  can  fire  a  gun." 

Silverstairs  laughed.  "I  say  now!  You  are 
too  modest  by  half."  He  looked  at  de  Fres- 
noy.  "Verplank  is  one  of  the  crack  shots  of 
America." 

De  Fresnoy  turned  again  to  Verplank. 
"You  should  demand  pistols  then.  Barouffski 
draws  well,  but  at  twenty  paces  he  is  less  sure 
of  himself.  Have  you  selected  your  seconds?" 

"I  suppose  I  may  count  on  Silverstairs  for 


one " 


The  young  earl  nodded.    "That's  of  course, 


THE   MONSTER  83 

and  perhaps  you,  de  Fresnoy,  will  act  with 


me." 


The  Parisian  smoothed  his  moustache.  1T 
shall  be  much  honoured.  In  that  case,  how 
ever,  as  necessary  preliminary,  I  shall  have 
to  ask  to  be  made  acquainted  with  all  the  cir 
cumstances." 

But  now  Leopold,  bearing  a  dish  on  which 
were  oysters  green  as  stagnant  scum,  ap 
proached  and  with  an  air  of  infinite  tenderness, 
much  as  though  it  were  a  baby,  placed  it  before 
de  Fresnoy. 

Leisurely  he  began  to  eat. 

Verplank,  who  had  been  looking  out  of  the 
window,  leaned  forward.  "The  circumstances 
are  evangelical  in  their  simplicity.  Last  even 
ing  I  was  about  to  speak  to  Madame  Ba- 
rouffska  when  he  put  himself  between  us  and 
eyed  me  in  the  manner  which  I  have  de 
scribed." 

De  Fresnoy,  considering  him  over  an  oyster, 
said: 

aYou  were  at  the  Joyeuses  then?" 

Verplank  nodded. 

"And  there  Barouffski  objected  to  your 
speaking  to  his  wife?" 

"Yes." 

De  Fresnoy  swallowed  the  oyster.  "In  that 
case  he  was  guilty  not  only  of  a  grave  offense 


84  THE   MONSTER 

to  you,  but  to  Madame  de  Joyeuse  as  well. 
The  duke  would  be  the  first  to  resent  it." 

With  an  idea  of  making  it  all  very  clear, 
Silverstairs  put  an  oar  in:  "Madame  Barouff- 
ska,  you  know,  was  formerly  Madame  Ver 
plank." 

De  Fresnoy  bent  a  little.  It  may  be  that 
because  of  Silverstairs'  ultra  English  accent 
he  had  not  understood.  "Pardon?" 

But  here  Verplank  intervened.  "This  lady 
had  been  divorced  from  me  before  she  mar 
ried  Barouffski." 

De  Fresnoy,  over  another  oyster,  turned  to 
him  again.  Yet  any  surprise  he  may  have  ex 
perienced  he  was  too  civil  to  display. 

"Ah,  indeed!"  he  replied.  He  looked  as 
though  he  were  about  to  add  something,  but 
refraining,  he  paused. 

Verplank  helped  him  out.  "You  are  think 
ing  perhaps  that  there  may  have  been  circum 
stances  that  rendered  further  acquaintance  be 
tween  us  inadmissible.  I  may  assure  you  that 
there  are  none  and,  without  wishing  to  intrude 
my  private  affairs,  I  may  assure  you  also  that 
to  this  hour  I  am  unaware  why  the  divorce  was 
obtained.  This  lady  had  no  grievance  of  any 
kind  against  me  and  I  had  none  whatever 
against  her." 

Pontificallyym  his  deepest  note,  Silverstairs 


THE  MONSTER  85 

threw  out:  "In  the  States  they  give  you  a 
divorce  for  a  Yes  or  a  No." 

"For  married  people,"  de  Fresnoy  remark 
ed,  yet  so  pleasantly  that  the  sarcasm  was  lost, 
"America  is  the  coming  country." 

As  he  spoke,  the  fat  wraiter,  after  super 
vising  the  removal  of  the  first  dish,  produced, 
with  the  air  of  a  conjurer,  another.  It  was  an 
omelette,  golden  without,  frothy  within. 

De  Fresnoy  glanced  up.  "Countermand  the 
pear.  Instead,  bring  me  paper  and  ink." 

"Perfectly,  monsieur  le  baron." 

Slowly  de  Fresnoy  attacked  the  food.  After 
a  mouthful  he  said  to  Silverstairs: 

"When  the  writing  materials  come  we  can 
get  off  a  note  to  Barouffski.  If  he  has  any  ex 
planation  he  can  advance  it.  Otherwise — on 
guard!" 

After  another  mouthful  he  said  to  Ver- 
plank: 

"You  have  fought  before?" 

"I  have  not  had  the  occasion." 

"Nor  I,"  interjected  Silverstairs.  "It  is 
against  the  law  in  England." 

Gravely,  as  though  he  were  receiving  val 
uable  information  de  Fresnoy  bowed.  "So  it 
is  here.  But  with  us  it  is  custom  that  rules, 
not  law.  No  jury  would  convict  an  honour 
able  man  for  fighting  a  fair  fight.  Besides, 


86  THE   MONSTER 

dueling  is  in  our  blood.  It  will  not  disappear 
as  chivalry  has.  It  will  last  as  long  as  there 
are  French  men — and  French  women.  And 
yet,  in  saying  that  chivalry  has  disappeared,  I 
am  in  error.  Not  later  than  the  week  before 
last  a  cousin  of  mine,  a  young  man  truly 
charming,  married  a  monster." 

He  pushed  aside  his  plate.  "Well,  then, 
Leopold,  am  I  to  sit  here  the  entire  day?" 

Serviceably,  a  buvard  in  his  hand,  the  waiter 
approached.  "I  have  s^bventionedji  new  pen 
for  the  use  of  monsieur Te  baron.77 

"There,  Leopold,  your  sins  are  remitted. 
See  at  once  if  the  sjias&eu^is  free." 

De  Fresnoy  looke'd  at  Silverstairs.  "With 
your  permission,  in  our  joint  names,  I 
write." 

He  looked  at  Verplank.  "Will  you  pardon 
me  if  I  ask  how  your  name  is  spelled?" 

Verplank,  getting  at  his  case,  extracted  a 
card. 

De  Fresnoy  glanced  at  it.  Then,  taking  that 
new  pen,  he  read,  as  he  wrote,  aloud. 

M.  le  Comte  Barouffski. 

Monsieur:  M.  Verplank  has  requested  the  Earl  of 
Silverstairs  and  myself  to  arrive  at  an  understanding 
with  two  of  your  friends  concerning  an  incident  which 
occurred  last  evening  in  the  Av:nue  Cours  la  Reine. 

Lord  Silverstairs  and  I  ivill  be  obliged  if,  as  soon  as 


THE   MONSTER  87 

possible,  you  will  ask  one  of  your  friends  to  appoint  a 
meeting  at  which  we  may  deliberate. 

Receive,  Monsieur,  the  expression  of  my  distinguished 
sentiments. 

Baron  de  Fresnoy 

He  looked  over  at  Silverstairs.  "Is  that  to 
your  liking?  Good!  We  will  send  it  to  the 
Little  Club  where  the  answer  is  to  be  left  and 
we  will  have  a  reply  today.  En  attendant, 
there  are  matters  that  claim  me." 

With  a  movement  of  the  chin  he  summoned 
the  waiter. 

A  little  byplay  followed;  the  presentation 
of  the  bill,  the  click  of  gold  on  porcelain,  the 
carelessly  gathered  change,  the  meagre  tip,  the 
reappearance  of  the  hat,  the  bowing  waiters, 
the  craning  necks,  and  the  departure  of  de 
Fresnoy,  an  umbrella  under  his  arm,  a  cigar 
between  his  teeth. 

Verplank,  emptying  a  glass  of  Chablis, 
looked  out  of  the  window.  A  panorama  was 
forming.  He  saw  the  room  at  Coronado, 
Leilah  as  she  told  him  of  her  love,  his  brief 
absence,  his  harrowing  return,  the  hunt  for 
her  that  had  extended  over  half  the  globe,  a 
hunt  that  divorce  had  not  terminated,  which 
her  re-marriage  had  not  stopped  and  which, 
had  he  not  at  last  discovered  her,  nothing 
could  have  stayed  save  his  death  or  hers  or  the 


88  THE   MONSTER 

reason  of  the  implacable  Why.  An  obstacle 
to  the  Why  or,  it  might  be,  the  incarnation  of 
it,  was  Barouffski,  and  Verplank  saw  himself 
standing  somewhere  with  Barouffski  before 
him.  There  was  a  command,  the  call  of  num 
bers,  a  detonation  and  the  sight  of  Barouffski 
turning,  swaying,  falling  down. 

The  panorama  faded.  A  picture  had  ap 
peared.  Before  the  window,  arrested  by  a 
congestion  of  traffic,  a  motor  was  stopping. 
In  it  and  the  mist  was  Leilah. 

Verplank  sprang  to  his  feet.  With  the  idea 
of  going  out  to  her  there  and  forcing  an  ex 
planation,  he  looked  about  for  his  hat. 

Silverstairs  also  got  up.  He  had  not  seen. 
He  too  was  looking  for  his  hat.  Placidly  he 
remarked: 

"I  have  an  appointment  with  a  chap  named 
Tempest.  Will  you  come  with  me?" 

But  now,  the  congestion  relieved,  the  motor 
shot  on.  Verplank  had  the  spectacle  of  a  face 
fading  instantly  in  the  fog  and  the  future. 

"Will  you?"  Silverstairs  repeated. 

"Will  I  what?" 

"I  have  to  see  a  man  about  a  horse.  He 
lives  just  off  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  in  the  rue 
de  la  Pompe.  Will  you  come  up  there  with 
me?" 

"Yes,  if  you  will  go  on  foot.     In  that  case 


THE   MONSTER  89 

I'll  leave  you  there  and  walk  back.  I  need  the 
exercise.  I  feel  like  what  you  described  as  a 
fidgety  Frenchman." 

Silverstairs  pulled  at  his  moustache.     "It's 
no  end  of  a  walk.    But  no  matter,  I'll  go  you." 


VI 

That  morning  Leilah  had  two  appointments, 
one  with  a  modist&p-the  other  with  Violet 
Silverstairs.  ~~SrTe  did  not  feel  equal  to  either. 
The  episode  of  the  previous  evening  had  been 
to  her  like  the  supreme  torture  which  medieval 
legislation  devised.  It  was  all  she  could  bear 
—and  more! 

When,  abruptly,  she  found  herself  face  to 
face  with  Verplank,  it  was  as  though  she  were 
confronted  by  the  dead.  The  sense  of  it  numbed 
her,  and  the  numbness  was  heightened  by  a 
horror  that  has  no  name.  Into  the  seats  of 
thought  there  entered  the  realisation  that,  in 
spite  of  all,  she  still  loved  him,  that  in  spite 
of  all  he  still  loved  her.  In  the  core  of  these 
convictions  fear  entered,  fear  of  him,  fear  of 
herself,  a  sensation  of  common  peril  and 
mutual  perdition  so  blinding  that  Barouffski's 
rudeness  she  barely  noticed,  and  it  was  with  a 
look  the  damned  may  have  that  she  saw 
Verplank  turn  with  Violet  Silverstairs, 
and  go. 

As  they  passed,  Barouffski,  with  the  air  of 
one  commenting  on  a  triviality,  remarked : 


92  THE   MONSTER 

"How  odd  it  is  that  the  Joyeuses  should  care 
to  hobnob  with  demi-castors.  Shall  we  go?" 

That  demi-castors  meant  bounders  general 
ly,  and,  in  this  instance,  specifically,  she  would, 
ordinarily,  have  been  insufficiently  familiar 
with  the  slang  of  the  boulevards  to  know.  But 
she  did  not  hear.  Moreover,  the  remark  re 
quired  no  reply.  Even  otherwise  she  was  un 
able  to  speak,  and  it  was  not  until  Barouffski 
reiterated  his  suggestion  that  mechanically  she 
acceded  to  it  with  a  movement  of  the  head. 

Her  demeanor  then  in  traversing  the  salons, 
her  leave-taking  of  the  duchess,  her  bearing  in 
descending  the  stairs,  were  as  mechanical  as  her 
reply  to  Barouffski,  and  it  was  not  until  after 
the  motor  had  dropped  him,  as  he  had  asked 
that  it  should,  at  the  door  of  the_  Little  Club, 
that,  at  last  alone,  the  mental  fi^cH^losis^ell  by. 

At  once  in  a  sort  of  retrograde  vision,  she 
relived  the  past.  There  had  been  the  flight 
from  Coronado,  the  halt  at  Salt  Lake,  the 
descent  into  Nevada,  the  divorce,  the  journey 
abroad,  the  platonic  marriage  to  Barouffski. 
These — the  succeeding  episodes  in  the  drama 
of  her  life — were  so  many  hostages  to  joy, 
barricades  thrown  one  after  another  between 
Verplank  and  herself,  and  unavailingly 
thrown,  since,  with  but  a  look,  they  were  al 
most  destroyed. 


THE   MONSTER  93 

They  had  seemed  wholly  impregnable,  but 
she  knew  then  that  unless  reinforced  by  surer 
bars,  they  would  one  and  all  collapse.  At  the 
foreknowledge  of  that  she  appreciated  what 
the  heroines  in  the  old  tragedies  endured,  when 
circled  by  the  seven-times-twisted  coil  of  fate. 
Yet,  though  they  had  yielded,  she  would  not 
yield,  and  it  was  with  this  determination  that 
she  alighted  in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe. 

The  house  there  had  a  church  for  neigh 
bour,  and  stood  between  a  court  and  a  garden. 
Before  the  court  was  a  high,  white  wall.  The 
garden  extended  back  to  the  parallel  street, 
where,  also,  was  a  wall.  The  entrance  to  the 
court  was  a  double  doorway,  the  entrance  to 
the  garden  was  an  iron  gate.  Between  the 
gate  and  the  house  were  large  urns,  a  marble 
bench,  a  marble  chair,  most  noticeably  the 
kennels  of  two  mastiffs,  pets  of  Barouffski  who, 
at  whatever  hour  he  returned  at  night,  had 
them  loosed.  They  were,  he  declared,  a  great 
protection,  as  indeed  they  were — for  him. 
Apart  from  the  occasional  barking  of  these 
dogs,  barring  also  occasional  music  from  the 
church,  usually  the  garden  was  quiet.  But 
that  was  in  the  order  of  things.  It  lacked  both 
stable  and  garage.  These  had  been  secured 
elsewhere. 

Except  for  that  detail,  the  arrangements  gen- 


94  THE   MONSTER 

erally  were  satisfactory.  The  house  was 
commodious,  agreeably  furnished.  On  the 
ground  floor  were  the  usual  offices,  beneath 
which  the  servants  slept.  On  the  floor  above 
were  the  salons  and  dining  hall.  Above  these 
were  the  bedrooms.  On  this  upper  floor  the 
apartment  which  Barouffski  occupied  gave  on 
the  street,  while  Leilah's  overlooked  the 
garden. 

Adjacent  to  her  suite  was  a  stairway  de 
signed  for  servants,  but  which,  because  of  its 
convenience,  she  occasionally  used.  It  led 
directly  to  the  dining  hall,  and  from  there  she 
could  descend  into  the  garden. 

It  had  a  superior  advantage.  It  enabled  her 
to  avoid  the  hazards  of  the  main  stairway, 
which  was  used  by  Barouffski,  whom  nearer 
acquaintance  had  discovered  to  her  without 
the  mask — without  one  mask,  that  is — for  jiis^ 
trion  that  he  was,  he  had  many,  but  the  best, 
7hlT"feigned  nobility  of  noble  pride,  the  as 
sumed  parage,  had  gone. 

In  its  place  was  a  smile,  constant,  equivo 
cal,  ambiguous,  a  smile  such  as  the  consciously 
damned  may  display.  It  gave  Leilah  little 
creeps.  She  dreaded  it,  dreaded  him,  dreaded 
both,  what  is  worse  she  dreaded  instinctively, 
without  knowing  why.  The  man  was  ami 
able,  serviceable,  gallant.  He  wore  his 


THE   MONSTER  95 

domino  not  faultlessly  perhaps  but  with  the 
Tine  air  of  a  bravo  who,  when  the  time  comes, 
will  knife  you,  yes,  but  who  in  so  doing  will 
rather  require  that  you  admire  the  chasing  on 
the  handle  of  the  blade.  As  yet  the  knife  was 
concealed.  But  Leilah  felt  that  it  was  there. 
He  knew  it  was.  Occasionally  he  fingered  the 
point. 

Hitherto  he  had  lived  by  expedients.  A 
golden  six  had  been  tossed  him.  He  had 
pocketed  it.  For  him  the  economic  problem  of 
life  was  solved.  He  asked  little  else,  merely 
that  the  solution  should  endure  and  that  his 
dignity,  of  which  he  had  a  humorous  concep 
tion,  be  outwardly  preserved.  In  addition  to 
his  dignity,  or  to  his  idea  of  it,  he  had  another 
attribute.  He  was  not  exacting.  It  is  a  great 
charm  in  any  one.  But  with  him  it  did  not  ex 
tend  to  money.  Freely  he  demanded  it,  freely 
she  gave  and  it  was  precisely  when  he  demand 
ed  it  that  she  felt,  and  he  felt,  too,  the  point 
of  the  knife. 

On  this  evening  when,  after  the  usual  din  at 
the  doors,  the  motor  entered  the  court  and  she 
alighted  at  the  perron,  two  footmen  busied 
themselves  in  aiding  her. 

Leilah  passed  through  the  dining  room  to 
the  garden  where  for  a  while  she  walked  along 
the  path  that  led  from  the  house  to  the  gate. 


96  THE   MONSTER 

The  garden  was  cloistered,  the  night  serene. 
The  influences  of  both  affected  her.  The  dark 
ness  put  her  thoughts  into  relief,  the  solitude 
relaxed  the  tension  of  her  nerves. 

Another  thing  was  helpful,  the  determina 
tion  which  she  had  reached,  though  for  that 
determination  to  be  maintained  there  must, 
she  saw,  be  further  hostages,  new  barricades. 
But  what  further  hostages  could  she  give  she 
wondered,  what  firmer  barricades  was  it  pos 
sible  to  erect?  Barring  flight  or  an  appeal  to 
Verplank,  some  message  begging  him  to  leave 
Paris,  she  could  not  imagine  any.  Flight  she 
had  already  tried,  but  not  flight  to  some  one  of 
the  world's  far  away  places  where  any  one  may 
be  lost  forever.  It  was  a  miserably  dismal 
thing  to  do,  she  reflected,  a  thing  so  dismal  and 
so  miserable  that  she  doubted  her  ability  to  do 
it. 

As  she  thought  it  over  she  wondered  if  in 
some  former  existence  she  could  have  injured 
Verplank  and  whether  it  were  by  way  of 
retribution  that  he  had  the  power  to  tempt  and 
torture  her  now.  Tenets  of  this  character  the 
Vidya  advanced  and  as  she  had  told  Tempest, 
she  had  come  to  believe  in  that  Scripture  as 
many  do  in  the  Bible,  though  as  many  also  do 
without  being  able  to  accept  it  entirely,  with 
out  being  able  to  accept  for  instance  stories 


THE   MONSTER  97 

such  as  that  of  Jonah  and  the  whale  which  none 
the  less  all  would  accept  were  it  known  how 
profound  is  the  symbolism  behind  them.  With 
like  reservations,  Leilah  accepted  the  Vidya. 
She  was  very  ignorant  as  women  in  her  station 
generally  are  and  the  reservations  were  due  to 
that  ignorance  and  also  to  the  demand  which 
the  doctrine  made  on  her  imagination.  But 
though  she  was  ignorant  she  was  conscious  of 
it  and  consciousness  of  ignorance  is  usually  the 
condition  precedent  to  enlightenment. 

Now,  in  considering  the  episode  of  the  even 
ing,  she  asked  herself  whether  she  was  war 
ranted  in  accepting  this  creed  of  past  lives. 
At  the  Joyeuses,  during  the  announcements  of 
resonant  names,  Tempest  had  said  that  un 
less  we  swallow  the  ridiculous  dogma  of  a 
soul  specially  created  at  every  birth  and  unless 
too  we  are  indecent  enough  to  fancy  the  Deity 
waiting  for  that  purpose  on  the  passions  and 
caprices  of  man,  we  have  to  accept  it,  have  to 
accept  with  it  the  corollary  of  past  actions  and 
their  consequences,  have  to  accept,  too,  the  de 
duction  that,  in  accordance  with  our  past 
actions,  it  is  we  who  reward  or  punish  our 
selves,  we  who  become  avenging  furies  or  an 
gels  of  light. 

Leilah  wished  that  she  could  have  discussed 
the  matter  more  fully  with  Tempest  yet  she  felt 


98  THE   MONSTER 

that  what  he  had  said  was  logical,  but  if  it 
were  true,  then  the  parallel  doctrine  that  all 
misdeeds  and  with  them  all  misfortunes  spring 
from  desire  must  be  true  also,  in  which  case, 
before  their  consequences  can  be  effaced, 
all  misdeeds  must  be  atoned.  But  how  can 
they  be  atoned?  she  asked  herself.  Presently 
she  remembered.  According  to  the  Vidya,  any 
desire  no  matter  what,  desire  for  pleasure,  for 
gain,  for  attainments,  for  honours,  even  the 
desire  for  spiritual  perfection,  even  the  desire 
for  the  lack  of  desire,  must  be  extinguished  be 
fore  old  scores  are  paid.  That  was  the  way 
she  saw,  the  only  way.  The  debtor  must  sacri 
fice  himself  to  himself. 

But,  uncertain  still,  she  went  over  the  mat 
ter  again,  putting  to  it  little  tests,  passablyjjaif^ 
yet  serviceable  to  her.  She  had  ardently  de 
sired  to  marry  Verplank,  then,  desiring  as  ar 
dently  a  barricade  against  him,  she  had  mar 
ried  Barouffski.  In  the  one  case  the  result  had 
been  catastrophic;  in  the  other,  calamitous. 
Doubtless  she  had  sinned  in  the  past  and  these 
disasters,  brought  about  by  her  own  desires, 
were  her  punishment.  There  were  other 
things  that  she  had  desired.  She  had  wanted  to 
be  loved,  she  had  wanted  to  be  thought  a 
beauty,  and  not  only  her  love  had  shamed  her 
but  soon  she  might  be  ashamed  to  show  her 


THE   MONSTER  99 

face.  At  the  thought  of  these  things  she  real 
ised  anew  and  more  profoundly  than  ever  that 
selfish  desire  is  the  root  of  evil  and  that 
only  in  its  extirrjationjpay  peace  be  had.  But 
coincidently  she  realised  also  that  any  such 
extirpation  was  beyond  her.  Heredity,  envi 
ronment,  the  circumstances  of  her  life,  had 
given  an  impetus  to  desire  which  she  could  not 
arrest.  She  liked  wealth,  ease,  pretty  clothes, 
becoming  hats,  the  society  of  agreeable  people. 
She  liked  the  world  and  in  liking  it  she  feared 
that  she  liked  also  the  flesh,  it  might  be  even 
that  she  liked,  too,  the  devil.  Yet,  she  must  not, 
she  knew. 

In  telling  herself  that,  she  thought  of  the 
Church.  The  Church  was  so  much  more  com 
fortable.  There  you  were  not  asked  impossi 
bilities,  the  one  requirement  was  to  throw 
yourself  in  her  arms  and  repent.  As  the 
facile  process  occurred  to  her  she  recalled 
George  Moore's  story  of  Evelyn  Innes.  That 
masterwork  seemed  to  tell  her  to  do 
as  the  heroine  had  done  and  go  in  a 
convent. 

Perhaps  she  might,  she  thought.  Perhaps 
she  must. 

Several  times  already  she  had  crossed  and 
recrossed  the  garden.  Now  she  found  her 
self  at  the  farther  end  facing  the  iron  gate. 


100  THE   MONSTER 

Leilah  opened  it,  walked  to  the  corner  and 
returned. 

The  little  tentative  evasion  had  been  suc 
cessful.  At  any  time,  unseen  even  by  a  servant, 
she  could  leave  the  house,  disappear  utterly, 
be  forever  ingulfed.  But  the  knowledge  that 
she  could  escape  into  darkness  and  be  lost 
there,  offered  little  more  than  a  choice  be 
tween  tears.  It  presented  a  form  of  suicide 
which  was  superior  only  to  actual  death.  She 
hoped  she  might  be  spared  it.  She  hoped  an 
appeal  to  Verplank  would  suffice,  though  in 
what  manner  it  could  best  reach  him,  or,  for 
that  matter,  reach  him  at  all,  she  found  it 
difficult  to  decide.  To  make  it  personally  was 
impossible.  To  attempt  it  through  Violet  Sil- 
verstairs  would  involve  an  explanation  and 
that  was  impossible  also.  The  idea  of  em 
ploying  one  of  her  women  occurred  to  her. 
There  were  manifest  objections  to  such  a 
course,  though  the  particular  woman  whom 
she  had  in  view  she  trusted  entirely. 

Slowly  she  returned  to  the  house  and  went 
to  her  room.  There,  when  at  last  the  servants 
had  gone  and  she  was  alone,  she  knelt  on  a  rjrie-^ 
dieu  and,  to  the  Watchers  of  the  Seven 
SpHeres,  prayed  for  the  earthly  peace  of  her 
soul  and  of  his.  She  knew  that  no  prayer  could 
affect  them,  she  knew  that  they  are  not  to  be 


THE   MONSTER  101 

propitiated  or  coerced,  but  it  soothed  her  as 
prayer,  in  raising  the  vibrations,  does  soothe 
the  distressed.  The  prayer  concluded  she  be 
gan  another.  She  prayed  that  sometime  she 
might  be  somewhere,  on  some  plane,  where 
all  things  broken  are  made  complete  and  found 
again  things  vanished. 

Then,  the  solace  of  it  still  upon  her,  sud 
denly  she  saw  by  what  the  prayer  had  been 
induced.  The  consciousness  confused  and  pres 
ently,  in  the  melancholy  sotto-voce  of  thought, 
she  told  herself  that  to  extinguish  that  desire, 
she  would  have  to  be  in  Dharmakaya — the 
mystic  state  where  there  is  oblivion  of  all 
things  here. 

"Here!"  she  caught  herself  repeating.  For, 
at  once,  a  passage  from  the  Upanishads 
prompting,  she  remembered  that  here  means 
Myalba,  which  is  hell,  the  greatest  of  all  hells 
and,  for  those  of  this  evolution,  the  only  hell 
there  is. 


VII 

It  was  on  the  morning  succeeding  these 
incidents  that  Leilah  felt  unequal  for  the  ap 
pointments  she  had  made.  But  however  she 
felt,  she  always  did  what  she  had  planned. 
In  this  instance  nature  punished  her.  On  the 
way  to  the  first  appointment,  a  malaise  over 
took  her,  enveloped  her,  beat  at  her  and  al 
though,  gradually,  it  fell  by,  she  was  still  con 
scious  of  it  when,  in  the  rue  Cambon,  the  mo 
tor  stopped  at  the  jnodiste's  door. 

"The  fitting  of  madame  la  comtesse  Ba- 
rouffska!"  a  fair  young  girl  in  black  imme 
diately  and  authoritatively  announced. 

Before  landscapes  of  silk,  in  the  delight  of 
new  modes,  customers  were  sunning  them 
selves  At  the  announcement  they  turned, 
while  Leilah,  conducted  by  another  girl  who 
had  advanced  to  meet  her,  crossed  the  labora 
tory  of  enchantments  and  entered  an  adjoining 
room. 

But,  for  the  moment,  the  fitting  was  delayed. 
The  premiere  was  elsewhere  occupied.  When 
presently  she  appeared  she  excitedly  ex 
claimed: 


104  THE   MONSTER 

"I  hope  I  have  not  detained  madame.  I  am 
desolated  if  I  have.  But!  But!  If  madame 
knew!  One  is  literally  torn  to  pieces!  All 
day  long  it  is  nothing  but  Ernestine  that 
dress!  Ernestine,  that  robe!  Ernestine,  that 
costume!  Ernestine  this!  Ernestine  that! 
Truly  madame,  there  are  moments  when  I 
say  I  die!  I  go  crazy!" 

Abruptly  dropping  her  voice,  she  added: 
"But  pardon,  I  monologue." 

At  once,  indicating  a  gown  which  an  assist 
ant  had  brought,  she  exclaimed  again: 

"It  will  ravishingly  become  madame." 

The  gown,  a  work  of  the  best  Parisian  art, 
suggested  something  of  the  immateriality  of  a 
moonbeam,  and  as  the  assistant,  a  girl  with 
a  tired  face  and  circled  eyes,  held  it  for  in 
spection,  it  gleamed. 

Leilah  looked  at  it,  wondering  the  while 
where  she  would  wear  it,  whether  indeed  she 
would  wear  it  at  all.  Then,  before  a  sheet 
that  had  been  placed  on  the  floor  and  on  which 
the  assistant  arranged  the  gown  in  a  circle 
she  proceeded  to  undress. 

To  the  amateur  in  feminine  beauty,  there 
are  few  spectacles  more  attractive  than  that  of 
an  attractive  woman  clothed  in  lingerie  and  a 
hat.  This  spectacle  Leilah  presented. 

The  premiere  exclaimed  at  it.    "Madame  la 


THE   MONSTER  105 

comtesse  has  a  figure  truly  divine.  But!  But! 
Who  could  have  laced  her?" 

"I  was  not  very  well  this  morning,"  Leilah 
replied.  "I  told  my  women  not  to  make  me 
too  tight.  But  you  can  take  me  in  I  think 
about  an  inch." 

"Marguerite,"  said  the  premiere,  "draw  the 
stays  a  little  closer." 

The  girl  with  the  tired  face  undid  the  cor 
set  and  pulled  at  the  strings.  But  she  pulled 
awkwardly,  perhaps  too  suddenly. 

Leilah  gasped,  turned,  sat  down  and  fell 
forward.  The  premiere  hurried  to  her.  She 
had  fainted. 

"The  smelling  salts!"  the  premiere  cried. 
"The  smelling  salts!  Cognac!  Get  some 
cognac!" 

With  one  hand  she  was  supporting  Leilah, 
with  the  other  she  gesticulated  at  Marguerite 
who,  hurriedly  from  the  mantel,  fetched  a 
vinaigrette  which  Ernestine  then  took  and 
sniffed  at. 

"She's  coming  to,"  said  the  assistant. 

Ernestine  waved  the  vinaigrette.  "The 
gods  be  praised!" 

For  Leilah  now  had  opened  her  eyes. 
Wearily  she  looked  about,  straightened  herself 
and  sighed. 

"I  must  have  fainted." 


106  THE   MONSTER 

"It  is  nothing  madame,"  Ernestine  anxiously 
protested.  "Truly  nothing  and  yet  so  modish. 
Yesterday  the  Princesse  de  Solferino  fainted. 
The  day  before  it  was  the  turn  of  the  young 
Duchesse  de  Malakoff.  Such  a  good  augury 
for  these  ladies!  Like  them  madame  is  per- 
haps- 

But  Leilah  now  was  making  an  effort  to  rise. 

Abandoning  the  vinaigrette  Ernestine  aided 
her. 

"Madame  will  perhaps  wish  the  fitting  post 
poned.  Yes,  is  it  not?  It  might  further  fa 
tigue  madame.  To-morrow — no,  to-morrow  I 
regret  but  in  the  afternoon  I  have  three  ap 
pointments  and  in  the  morning  there  is  the 
trousseau  of  Miss  Smith  of  New  York  who  is 
to  marry  an  English  lord.  Marguerite!"  she 
interrupted  herself  to  exclaim.  "The  costume 
of  madame!" 

Then,  as  the  assistant  also  assisted  Leilah, 
reflectively  the  premiere  resumed : 

"I  hear  that  every  New  York  young  lady 
loves  a  lord.  But— 

She  hesitated.  Visibly  the  vision  evoked, 
confused.  Yet,  after  a  second's  pause,  rally 
ing,  she  continued. 

"Perhaps  it  is  not  every  New  York  young 
lady  who  has  a  lord  to  love.  Perhaps  many 
of  them  love  the  same  lord." 


THE   MONSTER  107 

Discreetly  she  smiled.  "And  that  must  be  so 
nice  for  him!" 

Considering  Leilah,  she  concluded: 

"But  another  day— 

Of  it  all,  Leilah  heard  but  that.  "Yes,"  she 
answered,  "another  day." 

Then,  presently,  after  more  attentions,  the 
premiere  accompanied  her  to  the  door. 

"Rue  Frangois  Premier,"  Leilah  told  the 
groom. 

The  machine  shot  ahead.  Arrested  shortly 
by  a  congestion  of  traffic,  it  halted  before  a 
window  behind  which  Verplank  and  Silver- 
stairs  sat. 

Leilah,  unconscious  of  their  presence,  gazed 
at  the  murky  cinematograph  of  the  street,  filled 
at  this  hour  with  faces  sordid,  petulant,  in 
different,  or  frankly  gay;  with  the  passing 
forms  of  workmen,  idlers,  shopgirls,  vaga 
bonds;  the  swarming  Parisian  crowd  which 
did  not,  she  believed,  contain  one  soul  as  miser 
able  as  her  own. 

The  congestion  relieved,  the  motor  shot  on. 
Leilah  leaned  back.  It  was  not  so  long  ago 
that  she  was  on  her  way  from  New  York  to 
Coronado.  She  was  happy  then,  happy  with  a 
happiness  so  perfect  that  it  lifted  her  into  the 
ultimate  ecstasies  which  love  and  life  comport. 
It  was  not  so  long  ago,  only  six  short  months, 


108  THE   MONSTER 

only  that  brief  eternity  of  sorrow  which,  un- 
ended  yet,  had  been  the  damning  penalty  of 
that  joy. 

"In  this  life  ye  shall  have  tribulation,"  the 
Christ  had  said,  and  truly  said,  and  as  she 
rememorated  the  significant  menace,  she  won 
dered  whether  for  such  as  she,  tribulation 
ended  here.  But  her  creed  assured  her.  From 
the  Vidya  she  had  acquired  faith  in  fate,  the 
belief  rather  that  we  make  our  own  destiny, 
that  it  is  by  our  own  hands  that  our  lives  are 
cast  in  places  pleasant  or  the  reverse,  that  our 
conduct  in  one  life  creates  the  conditions  of 
our  existence  in  another,  that  anything  experi 
enced  now  is  the  effect  of  a  cause  set  going  in 
the  past,  that  happiness  is  the  recompense  of 
beneficence,  deformity  the  result  of  cruelty, 
melancholy  the  penalty  of  evil  thoughts.  But 
whether  retribution  pursued  its  victim  into 
future  planes  or  abandoned  them  when  they 
died,  depended,  she  also  believed,  on  how  they 
faced  it  here,  and  it  was  in  this  idea  that,  dur 
ing  the  unended  sorrow,  she  had  found  the 
strength  to  bear  its  coils. 

The  motor  stopped.  She  told  the  groom  to 
wait.  Presently  she  was  among  the  subdued 
tints  and  harmonised  furnishings  of  the  draw 
ing  room  of  her  friend. 

At  once,  clearly  in  her  limpid  voice,  con- 


THE   MONSTER  109 

sidering  her  with  brilliant  eyes,  Violet  Silver- 
stairs  aimed  and  fired. 

"You're  a  liar!" 

At  the  shot  Leilah  attempted  to  smile,  and 
though  she  failed,  it  was  not  because  she  fan 
cied  there  could  be  any  reproach  in  the  term, 
but  because  latterly  she  had  been  unable  to 
smile  at  all. 

"You're  a  liar,"  Violet  repeated.  "Also, 
you  are  late." 

"I  know  I  am  late  and  I  am  sorry,"  Leilah 
withdrawing  her  gloves,  replied.  "But  how 
am  I  a  liar?" 

"Come  to  luncheon  and  you  will  precious 
soon  find  out.  I  had  some  eggs  for  you,  eggs 
a  1'Aurore  Boreale.  I  had  a  sweetbread.  I 
had — I  have  forgotten  what  else.  Now 
I  have  nothing.  Everything  is  spoiled." 

Violet  Silverstairs  was  perhaps  imaginative. 
There  were  eggs,  very  good  eggs  too,  though 
whether  prepared  in  the  Aurora  Borealis 
fashion  is  perhaps  beside  the  issue.  More 
over  there  was  a  sweetbread,  one  that  had  been 
germinated  on  salt  meadows  and  which  was 
not  spoiled  in  the  least.  In  addition  there  were 
the  other  things  which  she  had  forgotten  and 
all  of  them  appetising  in  the  extreme.  It  was 
an  excellent  luncheon,  perfectly  served  in  a 
beautiful  room.  But  it  was  a  luncheon  for 


110  THE   MONSTER 

Sybarites,  not  for  the  suffering.  After  the 
first  morsel  Leilah  was  unable  to  eat. 

"Where  is  Silverstairs?"  she  asked  when 
that  morsel  had  been  consumed. 

"With  your  ex." 

Leilah  put  down  her  fork.    "With  Gulian?" 

Violet  laughed.  "Have  you  more  than  one? 
But  it  was  just  through  him  that  your  lie 
cropped  out.  Last  night  he  swore  by  bell, 
book  and  candle  that  you  had  never  told  him 
why  you  cut  and  ran." 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Leilah  found 
herself  unable  to  eat.  Instantly  her  mind  shot 
back.  She  was  at  Coronado  again,  in  the  sun 
shine  and  frippery  of  her  sitting  room.  She 
could  see  Verplank  as  he  left  it,  see  the  letters 
that  had  been  brought,  see  herself  as  she 
opened  one  of  them,  that  one  which  with  its 
enclosures  she  had  redirected  and  left  for  him. 
The  possibility  never  before  conjectured,  that 
he  had  not  received  it  girdled  her  with  a 
zone  of  ice.  For  a  moment  she  looked  fixedly 
at  one  of  the  windows  through  which  the  pale 
daylight  fell.  In  the  beautiful  room,  com 
panioned  by  her  nearest  friend,  she  felt  that 
sense  of  utter  loneliness  which  in  the  great 
crises  of  life  is  experienced  by  all.  Yet  was  it 
true? 

"Violet!"  she  cried.    "You  are  jesting." 


THE   MONSTER  111 

But  the  lady,  determined  then  or  never  to 
learn  the  truth,  cocked  an  eye  at  her.  "I  am 
not,  nor  was  he." 

At  that,  Leilah  felt  the  girdle  of  ice  send 
ing  its  shivers  through  her.  The  plan  she  had 
made  must,  she  saw,  be  foregone.  If  Verplank 
did  not  know  why  she  had  separated  from 
him,  never  would  he  leave  Paris  until  he  did. 
But  what  must  he  have  thought,  she  agonised- 
ly  reflected,  and  what  must  he  think! 

Violet,  who  had  been  watching  her,  said: 

"Why  don't  you  tell  me?" 

Leilah  taking  up  her  fork  again,  tried  for 
countenance  sake,  to  affect  to  eat.  The  effort 
was  beyond  her.  She  put  it  down. 

"I  can't,"  she  at  last  replied. 

Violet,  her  brilliant  eye  still  cocked,  almost 
winked. 

"Yes, 'you  said  that  before.  But  you  see, 
don't  you  know,  that  whether  you  can  or  can 
not  tell  me,  you  will  have  to  tell  him  and,  in 
the  circumstances,  would  it  not  be  best  to  have 
me  do  it  for  you?  To  be  sure,  if  you  had  taken 
my  advice  and  omitted  to  marry  Barouffski, 
I  would  say,  have  it  out  with  him  yourself. 
But  your  marriage  does  not  seem  to  have 
simplified  matters,  which,  so  far  as  I  can  make 
out,  are  now  pretty  thoroughly  mixed." 

The  lady  spoke  better  than  she  knew.   Mat- 


112  THE   MONSTER 

ters  were  complicated  though  how  profound 
ly  she  had  no  idea,  nor  was  Leilah  aware  that 
the  situation,  already  tortuous,  was  to  become 
even  more  intricately  labyrinthine. 

"Of  course,"  Violet,  in  her  bell-like  voice, 
threw  out,  " after  running  away,  getting  a  di 
vorce  and  marrying  another  man,  I  can  fancy 
that  you  don't  much  want  to  see  him.  But, 
really,  you  owe  it  to  yourself  to  give  the 
reason,  particularly  as  it  is  he  who  is  to  blame." 

At  this,  Leilah,  who  had  been  looking  down 
into  her  prison,  looked  up.  "I  never  said  so." 

"No,  but  was  it  necessary?  Even  nowadays, 
even  in  the  States,  a  woman  does  not  cut  and 
run  because  butter  won't  melt  in  her  husband's 
mouth.  She  does  so  because  she  has,  or  thinks 
she  has,  a  grievance  and  the  man,  if  he  is  a 
man,  ought  to  be  given  an  opportunity  to 
apologise,  however  imaginary  the  grievance 
may  be." 

Leilah  shook  her  head.  "There  can  be  no 
apology  here." 

Violet  laughed.  "That  is  just  what  I  would 
say  if  I  had  gone  and  done  it.  Then  it  would 
be  for  Silverstairs  to  try  on  his  knees  to  get  me 
to  listen  to  one — provided,  of  course,  that  in 
the  interim  I  had  not  taken  over  another  man, 
for  in  that  case  I  verily  believe  he  would 
wring  my  neck.  But  you  need  fear  nothing  of 


THE   MONSTER  113 

the  sort  from  Verplank.  He  seemed  anxious 
only  to  wring  Barouffski's." 

Leilah  made  another  futile  effort  with  her 
fork.  Absently  she  answered : 

"I  don't  believe  he  knew  who  he  was." 

"You  don't!  After  his  telling  him!  But, 
apropos,  what  became  of  d'Arcy?  I  thought 
you  and  he  were  safely  tucked  away  in  a  cor 
ner,  otherwise  never  in  the  world  would  I 
have  marched  your  Number  One  up  to  your 
Number  Two." 

"D'Arcy!"  Leilah  repeated.  She  had  bare 
ly  heard.  She  scarcely  knew  what  she  was 
saying,  still  less  what  was  being  said. 

"Yes,  le  beau  d'Arcy.  Marie  de  Fresnoy 
told  me  that  the  other  day  at  the  races  he 
was  about  to  pay  a  ragamuffin  of  a  girl  for  a 
flower,  when  she  said:  "I'd  rather  you  kissed 
me."  Fancy  that!  She  told  me  too  that  a  man 
who  had  a  husband's  reasons  for  wanting  to 
kill  him,  was  afraid  to  say  a  word.  It  ap 
pears  he  is  a  dead  shot.  But  it  appears  also 
that  your  lovely  Barouffski  is  one  of  the  best 
swordsmen  here.  Verplank  had  better  look 
out.  To  return  though  to  our  Chablis  Mou- 
tonne.  What  will  you  do?" 

Leilah,  her  thoughts  afar,  made  no  reply. 

"What  will  you  do?"  Violet  repeated. 

From  afar  the  question  floated,  descended, 


114  THE   MONSTER 

trod  among  the  tender  places  of  Leilah's  soul. 
At  the  pain  of  it  she  winced.  "God  help  me, 
I  do  not  know." 

Violet,  cocking  an  eye  again,  insinuated: 
"Let  me  take  a  hand."  She  paused,  then,  for 
clincher,  threw  out:  "He  dines  here  to 
morrow." 

"Here!"  Leilah  exclaimed,  half  rising,  fear 
ful  now  that  at  any  moment  he  might  appear. 
"Here!  With  you?" 

Violet  nodded.  "Why  yes.  Why  not?  If  I 
can't  confess  you,  perhaps  I  can  him.  At  any 
rate  I  can  try.  You  can't  blame  me  for  want 
ing  to,  either.  You  abandoned  him  on  your 
honeymoon.  You  won't  tell  me  why  and  he 
says  he  don't  know.  But  he  must  suspect.  He 
must  have  concluded  that  you  left  him  for 
this,  that  or  the  other.  I  want  to  find  out  what 
his  this,  that  and  the  other  are  and  then  make 
my  own  selection.  It  is  true  he  did  say  that 
it  was  because  of  Barouffski.  But  that's  all 
gammon.  You  never  saw  Barouffski  until  you 
got  here.  There  is  something  else  and  what 
that  is  I  want  to  find  out.  No,  you  can't  blame 
me.  It  is  the  instinct  of  self-preservation.  If 
I  don't  get  at  the  bottom  of  it  soon,  I  shall 
simply  go  mad." 

A  laugh,  clear  and  musical,  wound  up 
the  lady's  chatter.  She  had  no  more  idea  of 


THE   MONSTER  115 

going  mad  than  she  had  of  jumping  out  of  the 
window.  But  she  wanted  to  know  and  that 
was  only  human. 

But  now,  Leilah,  who  a  moment  before  had 
half  risen,  stood  up.  "Violet,  I  am  not  well, 
you  must  let  me  go.  Yes,"  she  added  as  the 
lady  remarked  that  on  the  morrow  she  might 
appear  in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe.  "Yes,  yes." 

She  would  have  said  yes  to  anything.  Hur 
riedly  she  got  away. 

Without  the  motor  waited. 

"Home,"  she  told  the  groom. 

A  little  before  she  had  thought  herself  the 
most  miserable  of  beings.  But  however  deep 
the  hell,  there  is  always  a  deeper  one.  Add 
uncertainty  to  distress  and  the  sum  of  it  is 
sorrow  multiplied  by  the  infinite.  That  hell, 
that  sorrow  was  or  seemed  to  be,  hers.  She 
did  not  know  where  to  go,  what  to  do,  to  whom 
to  turn. 

The  pitiable  plan  of  flight  returned  to  her. 
Again  she  put  it  aside.  She  could  not  adopt 
it  now.  Besides,  though  she  owed  a  duty  to 
herself,  she  owed  another  to  Verplank.  In 
what  manner  he  had  failed  to  receive  the  let 
ter,  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  imagine,  but 
the  fact  that  he  had  not  received  it,  hurt  her 
doubly,  hurt  her  for  herself,  hurt  her  for  him. 
Had  it  reached  him,  both  would  have  been 


116  THE   MONSTER 

spared  this  pass.  But  it  had  not  reached  him 
and  since  then  what  must  he  have  thought  of 
her?  What! 

The  query,  which  kept  repeating  itself,  tor 
tured  her  and  on  that  torture  was  superposed 
the  precarious  problem  of  his  enlightenment. 
See  him  she  could  not.  To  write  was  beyond 
her  ability.  For  there  are  things  no  pen 
should  write  as  there  are  others  no  tongue 
should  tell.  None  the  less  the  truth  she  knew 
must  reach  him  and  would  do  so  best,  she 
thought,  through  some  channel  similar  to  that 
from  which  the  letter  had  proceeded,  from  a 
source  either  indifferent  or  jjimical  to  them 
both. 

At  the  auto-suggestion,  her  thoughts  flut 
tered,  scattered,  grouped,  then  suddenly  re 
grouping,  produced  a  name.  Beneath  her 
breath  she  uttered  it. 

"Barouffski!" 

It  was  not  in  provision  of  this  that  she  had 
married  him.  At  the  time  no  such  possibility 
had  even  impossibly  loomed.  But  she  had 
married  him  precisely  as  she  had  obtained  a 
divorce,  in  order  to  barricade  the  future  from 
the  past;  in  order  also  for  the  fleshpots  which 
she  craved — peace  and  security.  She  had  not 
had  much  of  either.  None  the  less,  the  pri 
mary  object  which  she  had  sought  had,  in  its 


THE   MONSTER  117 

accomplishment,  persisted.  He  was  a  barri 
cade.  He  was  her  official  and  paid  protector. 

For  the  task  therefore  which  she  could  not 
perform,  he  seemed  naturally  indicated.  What 
alone  gave  her  pause  was  the  certainty  that  he 
would  enjoy  it.  She  could  see  him,  see  his 
ambiguous  smile,  see  his  green  eyes  aglow, 
his  cruel  and  sensual  mouth  distended. 

From  the  picture  she  turned.  Beyond  was 
a  church,  the  frontal  draped  with  black.  The 
motor  had  stopped.  It  had  reached  the  house 
in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe  and  pending  the  open 
ing  of  the  doors,  whirred  as  it  blocked  the  side 
walk. 

It  was  then  that  she  turned.  Beside  her,  ar 
rested  by  the  car,  stood  Verplank. 

After  walking  up  from  Voisin's  with  Silver- 
stairs  he  had  left  him  a  moment  earlier  at 
Tempest's. 

But  the  great  doors  had  opened.  Before 
Verplank  could  speak,  the  machine  slid  in. 
As  it  entered  the  court,  the  doors  closed 
noisily. 


VIII 

On  alighting  at  the  ^ejron,  Leilah  had  as 
always  to  endure  the  ceremonial  of  two  foot 
men  assiduously  assisting  her. 

"Emmanuel,"  she  said  to  one  of  them.  "Is 
Monsieur  Barouffski  at  home?" 

"No,  madame  la  comtesse." 

Leilah  passed  on  and  up.  For  a  moment, 
in  the  hall  above,  she  hesitated.  Then,  push 
ing  a  portiire  aside,  she  entered  a  salon,  went 
to  the  window,  and  looked  out.  Crossing  the 
court  was  Verplank. 

Fear  and  the  fear  of  it,  the  throttling  sen 
sation  which  children  know  when  pursued,  en 
veloped  her.  With  an  idea  of  telling  the  ser 
vants  that  she  was  out,  that  she  was  ill,  that 
she  could  see  no  one,  she  turned.  On  a  table 
near  the  entrance  was  a  service  of  Sevres.  Its 
tender  hues  were  repeated  on  the  ceiling.  Be 
neath  was  the  mirror  of  a  waxed  and  polished 
floor.  On  the  glistening  wood  work  her  foot 
slipped.  She  staggered,  recovered  herself,  got 
to  the  door. 

Already  Verplank  had  entered.    She  could 


120  THE   MONSTER 

hear  him.  He  was  not  asking,  he  was  de 
manding  to  see  her.  The  form  of  the  order 
mounted  violently. 

"Tell  your  mistress  that  I  am  here." 

Even  then,  with  the  idea  that  she  might  still 
deny  herself,  Leilah  drew  back  into  the  room. 
Mentally  she  was  framing  a  phrase  when 
Emmanuel  entered. 

With  that  air  domestics  have  when  tidying 
something  objectionable,  the  footman  recon 
structed  Verplank's  command: 

"There  is  a  monsieur  who  inquires  whether 
madame  la  comtesse  receives?" 

"Tell  him- 

But  the  injunction,  as  yet  not  wholly  formed, 
was  never  completed.  Verplank,  brushing  the 
man  aside,  strode  in. 

Leilah,  retreating  before  him,  motioned  at 
Emmanuel,  and  the  servant,  with  an  affronted 
air  of  personal  grievance,  vacated  this  room 
that  was  charged  now  with  the  vibrations  of 
hostilities  begun. 

Retreating  yet  farther,  her  eyes  on  the 
foe,  Leilah  stared  at  him,  and,  as  she  re 
treated,  Verplank,  staring,  too,  advanced.  In 
his  stare  were  threats  so  voluble  that  she 
thought:  "He  will  kill  me."  At  the  thought, 
there  appeared  before  her  Death's  liberating 
face,  the  mysteriously  consoling  visage  which 


THE  MONSTER  121 

it  reveals  to  those  alone  who  have  reached  the 
depth  of  human  woe. 

Beyond,  from  the  church,  came  the  music  of 
an  organ.  A  requiem  was  being  held.  Leilah 
felt  as  though  it  were  her  own. 

Verplank,  his  hands  clenched,  the  look  of 
an  executioner  about  him,  threw  at  her: 

"For  six  months  I  have  been  looking  for 
you.  I  am  come  to  have  you  tell  me  why  I 
have  had  to  look  at  all." 

"Dies  irae,  dies  ilia''  admirably,  in  a  clear 
contralto,  a  woman's  voice  rang  out. 

Neither  heard  it.  At  the  menace  of  the 
man,  Leilah  shrank,  and  in  an  effort  at  defense 
cried  pitiably: 

"Gulian!    I  left  a  letter  for  you." 

Angrily  he  tossed  his  head. 

"I  received  none,  nor  did  I  need  any  to  tell 
me  that  there  are  women  on  the  street,  others 
in  jail,  that  are  less  vile  than  you." 

"Teste  David  cum  Sibylla"  clearly  and 
beautifully  the  voice  resumed. 

"Gulian!"  Leilah  cried  again. 

With  whips  in  his  words,  he  added: 

"No  harlot  could  have  acted  more  infa 
mously  than  you." 

At  the  lash  of  the  outrage,  Leilah,  joining 
her  hands,  held  them  to  him.  "Gulian!  You 
are  killing  me!" 


122  THE   MONSTER 

"It  is  what  you  deserve.  There  are  no 
penalties  now  for  such  turpitudes  as  yours. 
But,  when  there  were,  women  like  you  were 
beaten  with  rods,  they  were  lagrdated,  stoned 
to  death,  and  death  was  too  good  for  them; 
they  should  have  been  made  to  go  about,  as 
they  afterward  were,  as  you  should  be,  in  a 
yellow  wig,  in  a  yellow  gown,  that  even 
children  might  point  and  cry:  'Shame!' ' 

The  words,  which  he  tore  from  his  mouth, 
he  hurled  at  her.  She  cowered  before  them. 
On  a  chair  near  by  she  had  put  her  bag.  Her 
wrap  had  fallen  from  her.  In  the  church  now 
the  hymn  had  ceased.  The  ringing  of  the 
Elevation  was  beginning. 

"Gulian!  As  if  shame  had  not  cried  at  me! 
Gulian,  I  have  been  scourged,  I  have  been 
stoned.  If  I  live,  it  is  to  implore  of  you 
mercy." 

Her  hands,  still  joined,  were  still  extended, 
and  in  her  face  was  an  expression  of  absolute 
despair.  But  this  martyr  attitude  seemed  to 
him  the  most  abominable  of  hypocrisies,  and 
it  was  with  anger  refreshed  that  he  lashed  her 
again. 

"Mercy?  Yes,  you  want  mercy,  you,  who 
were  merciless  in  your  treachery  to  me.  A 
sweep  would  have  had  more  decency,  a  scul 
lion  more  heart.  I  put  in  your  hands  my  trust, 


THE   MONSTER  123 

my  love,  my  honour,  and  you  who  want 
mercy  dragged  them  in  dirt." 

"Gulian!"  Within  her  now  was  that  in 
vincible  need  of  justice  which  impels  the  weak 
est  to  protest  against  the  savagery  of  wrong. 
"Gulian !  When  you  know !" 

"I  do  know.  I  know  you  and  your  lies,  and 
the  infamy  of  them  too  well.  At  Coro 
na  do— 

"Gulian!  You  are  not  killing  me  merely, 
you  torture  my  very  soul." 

He  sneered. 

"Do  I?  Do  I,  indeed!  No,  you  compli 
ment  yourself.  It  is  what  I  want  to  do,  but 
you  cheat  me  even  there.  No  woman  with  a 
soul  could  have  done  this  soulless  thing." 

The  brutality  of  the  arraignment  shook  her. 
She  leaned  against  the  chair  for  support.  She 
felt  hopeless,  helpless,  defenseless,  and  it  was 
because  the  need  for  justice  still  impelled  her, 
that  she  protested  anew. 

"Gulian,  if  only  you  knew!  If  only  you 
had  had  that  letter!  Had  it  reached  you,  you 
would  know  that  there  was  no  deceit,  that  I 
left  you  for  your  sake  as  well  as  my  own.  Gu 
lian,  if  I  had  not  gone  you  would  have  seen  and 
made  me  tell  you,  and  then  it  may  be  you 
would  have  taken  me  and  thrown  me  with  you 
from  the  yacht." 


124  THE   MONSTER 

There  were  tears  in  her  words.  With  one 
hand  she  held  to  the  chair,  the  other  she  raised 
to  her  head.  It  pained  her.  She  felt  bruised 
and  looked  it. 

"Ecce  pants  Angelorum 
Factus  cibus  viatorum " 


Beyond,  sustained  by  the  arpeggios  of  the 
organ,  the  voice  of  a  singer  mounted  sheerly 
like  a  thread  of  gold.  It  lowered  and  height 
ened.  Presently,  on  a  note,  as  if  abruptly 
snapped,  it  ceased.  The  organ  continued.  It 
renewed  the  canticle.  It  projected  a  scale  that 
ascended  slowly,  as  though  upward  and  on 
ward,  over  the  limitless  steps  of  eternity,  it 
were  lifting  the  soul  of  the  dead. 

Leilah  wished  it  were  her  own.  Sadly  she 
added: 

"God  knows  it  would  have  been  better. 
Anything  would  be  better  than  that  you  should 
speak  to  me  as  you  do." 

There  is  an  innocence  that  appeals,  a  sincer 
ity  that  disarms,  a  candour  that  outfaces  every 
proof,  and  Verplank,  who  had  been  bent  on 
overwhelming  this  woman  with  a  contempt 
which  he  felt  wholly  deserved,  was  impressed, 
in  spite  of  himself,  by  the  evident  ingenuous 
ness,  by  the  evident  wretchedness,  too,  of  her 
words. 


THE   MONSTER  125 

He  moved  back. 

"You  say  I  would  have  made  you  tell  me?" 

"Yes.    Yes.    You  would  have." 

"But  made  you  tell  me  what?" 

Leilah,  still  holding  one  hand  to  her  head, 
raised  the  other  from  the  chair,  and  with  it 
made  a  gesture  slight,  yet  desolate. 

"What  was  it?"' he  asked. 

Before  replying,  she  looked  away. 

"What  I  hid  from  you  rather  than  repeat." 

"But  repeat  what?" 

Her  face  still  turned  from  him,  she  an 
swered: 

"Something,  my — something  Mr.  Ogston 
sent  me." 

"Mr.  Ogston!"  Verplank  exclaimed.  The 
formality  of  the  statement  astounded  him. 
"Do  you  mean  your  father?  What  did  he 
send  you?" 

But  Leilah  would  not  or  could  not  speak. 
Her  mouth  contracted  as  though  she  were 
choking,  and  she  put  a  hand  to  her  throat. 

"Tell  me,"  he  insisted. 

She  turned,  and  beseechingly  she  looked  at 
him. 

"Gulian,  I  cannot." 

At  that  Verplank  moved  nearer,  and  so 
dominatingly  that  again  she  extended  her 
hands. 


126  THE   MONSTER 

"Gulian,   1  will  get  some  one  else  to  tell 
you.    I  had  intended  to.    Believe  me,  it  is  bet 


ter  so." 


"It  concerns  me?" 

"Yes,  you." 

"And  you?" 

"Yes,  both  of  us." 

"Then  you  shall  tell  me,  and  tell  me  now. 
Do  you  hear?" 

"Gulian !"  she  cried.  She  raised  her  clasped 
hands  to  him.  "Gulian!" 

But  Verplank,  his  jaw  ominously  square, 
confronted  her. 

"I  say  you  shall." 

"Don't  look  at  me  then,"  she  pleaded. 
"Bend  your  head,  bend  it  lower.  One  second, 
then  I  will.  One  second — one.  Ah,  God! 
I  cannot." 

Verplank,  who  at  her  bidding  had  stooped, 
straightened  himself,  and  caught  at  her. 

"I  say  you  shall." 

"Gulian,  a  moment.  Give  me  a  moment. 
Now  bend  your  head  again.  One  moment, 
Gulian;  your  father,  your  father—  My 
mother  loved  him." 

"Your  mother  loved  my  father!" 

"Gulian,  I  am  his  daughter." 

"You  are  what?" 

"I  am  your  sister." 


THE   MONSTER  127 

As  she  whispered  it,  she  covered  her  face. 
Verplank  started,  straightened  again,  raised 
his  arm,  and,  with  a  gesture  wide,  elemental, 
absurd,  and  human,  struck  at  the  empty  air. 

Savagely  he  turned  to  her. 

"And  you  believe  this?" 

Leilah,  her  head  bowed,  her  face  covered, 
shook  with  sobs. 

"You  believe  it?"  he  repeated. 

"There  were  letters,"  she  stammered. 
"Three  letters.  No  one  could  read  them  and 
not — and  not— 

"And  it  was  for  this  you  left  me?" 

A  fresh  access  seized  her.  He  could  not  see 
her  tears,  he  heard  them. 

"And  it  was  for  this  you  got  a  divorce?" 

On  the  chair  beside  her  was  her  bag.  She 
felt  in  it,  and  got  out  a  handkerchief. 

"And  it  was  for  this  you  took  that  cad?" 

Slowly,  with  infinite  hesitations,  the  bit  of 
cambric  held  to  a  face  that  was  wet  and  white, 
she  turned  to  him. 

"I  thought  you  would  forget.  I  thought 
you  would  marry.  I  though  you  would  be 
happy.  I  hoped  so  that  you  would.  But  my 
leaving  you,  the  divorce,  the  marriage,  these 
things  were  done  with  no  idea  of  happiness. 
They  were  to  serve  as  barriers  between  us." 

Impotently  he  stamped  a  foot.    He  was  fu- 


128  THE   MONSTER 

rious  still.  But  his  anger  had  deflected.  He 
wag;  enraged  less  at  her  than  at  circumstances. 
/""Rubbish!  That's  what  your  barriers  are." 
—Leilah,  wiping  her  eyes,  turned  from  him. 
The  barriers,  however  fragile,  were  not  rub 
bish  to  her. 

Violently  he  continued: 

"As  for  Barouffski- 

But  Leilah,  turning  to  him  again,  inter 
rupted: 

"Gulian,  let  me  tell  you.  Last  night  I 
planned  to  have  some  one  ask  you,  for  my 
sake,  to  go  away.  Gulian,  I  thought  you 
would,  but  I  determined  if  you  would  not 
that  I  would  go." 

Verplank  moved  back. 

"Go!    Go  where?" 

"Ah!  God  knows!  Anywhere.  Wherever 
I  could  hide  myself.  Wherever  I  could  hide 
my  love  for  you." 

Her  eyes  had  been  raised  to  his.  At  the 
confession  they  lowered  of  themselves.  Then 
again  she  looked  him  in  the  face. 

"Gulian,  it  is  that  which  cried  shame  at  me. 
It  is  that  which  scourged  me  with  rods  bitterer 
than  those  of  which  you  spoke.  You  say  the 
barriers  are  nothing.  Gulian,  you  are  wrong. 
To  me  they  are  eternal." 

"Yes,"  he  angrily  retorted.     "Yes,  if  your 


THE   MONSTER  129 

story  were  true.    But  it  isn't.    It's  arrant  non 


sense." 


In  miserable  protest,  she  half  raised  a  hand. 

"Gulian,  when  I  read  those  letters  my  youth 
died  in  me.  Never  since  they  reached  me 
have  I  had  the  heart  to  smile.  If  you  had 
seen  them  you  would  have  felt  the  truth 
in  every  line."  — i 

"I  would  have  felt  nothing  of  the  kind;  the  I 
fact  that  you  still  care  for  me  ought  to  show 
you  that  they  are  false." 

"Gulian,  I  tried  to  think  that,  too;  but  even 
in  trying  I  felt  that  I  was  pleading  for  my 
self." 

"Then,  for  the  love  of  God,  stop  pleading 
and  act!  Look  at  yourself,  look  at  me!  We 
could  not  be  more  unlike  if  we  came  from 
different  planets." 

She  was  making  an  effort  to  answer.  He 
stopped  her. 

"Listen  to  this.  If  you  can't  act,  I  shall. 
My  mother  is  in  London.  To-morrow  she  is 
to  be  here.  Probably  she  can  tell  me  the  truth. 
If  not,  I  will  go  to  the  States.  There  I  will 
see  your  father.  When  I  return  it  will  be  with 
proofs.  I  will  bring  them  if  I  have  to  drag 
that  old  scoundrel  with  me." 

He  paused.  Though  angry  still,  her  story 
had  pacified  him.  He  felt  it  to  be  false,  none- 


130  THE   MONSTER 

theless  she  had  believed  it  and  the  fact  that 
she  had,  absolved  her  of  much  that  she  had 
done.  However  she  had  erred,  she  had  at 
least  tried  to  do  right.  He  closed  and  opened 
a  hand,  looked  at  it  and  from  it  looked  at 
her. 

"But  first  I  will  see  my  mother.  In  any 
case  I  will  be  here  to-morrow.  Yes,  that's 
what  I'll  do.  Why  shouldn't  I  come.  Why 
not?" 

Leilah  did  not  answer.  She  did  not  be 
lieve  he  would  come,  except  to  cause  fresh 
agony  to  them  both  there  was  no  reason  why 
he  should  do  so.  The  horror  which  she  had 
told  him  and  to  which  incredulously  he  had 
listened  was  gospel  to  her,  an  evil  gospel,  yes, 
but  nonetheless  a  true  one.  Besides  if  he  did 
come  as,  in  any  case,  he  said  he  would,  he 
might  meet  Barouffski,  and  affrightedly  she 
foresaw  blows,  afterwards  a  duel — one  which 
she  was  unaware  was  then  impending. 

"Why  not?"  Verplank  repeated,  fumbling 
her  as  he  spoke  with  suspicious  eyes  and  ap 
pearing  to  divine  and  to  resent  her  forecast. 

She  caught  at  a  straw.  Usually,  between 
four  and  seven,  Barouffski  was  tabled  at  bac 
carat,  gambling  with  her  money.  That  straw 
she  produced. 

"Come  at  five." 


THE  MONSTER  131 

Verplank,  appeased,  nodded.  "Very  good, 
at  five  then." 

But  at  once  she  realised  that  other  safe 
guards  were  needful.  She  hesitated,  looked 
about  her,  looked  at  Verplank,  gave  him  his 
hat,  motioned  to  him.  Then,  preceding  him, 
she  passed  into  an  adjoining  salon,  entered 
the  dining  room  and  moved  from  it  to  the 
garden  below. 

Passably  mystified,  he  followed. 

The  air,  freighted  with  fragrance,  stirred  by 
music  from  the  church,  the  dogs,  at  sight  of 
him,  charged  suddenly  with  menaces.  Strain 
ing  at  their  chains,  viciously  they  clamoured. 

Indifferently  Verplank  glanced  from  them 
to  the  gate  beyond,  to  which  Leilah  was  lead 
ing  him. 

When  both  reached  it,  she  opened  it  and 
said:  "Come  this  way  to-morrow,  will  you?" 

For  a  second  he  considered  her.  Her  face 
was  as  a  book  in  which  he  could  read  the  rea 
son.  In  view  of  many  things,  particularly  of 
the  duel,  it  seemed  to  him  all  very  puerile. 

But,  replacing  his  hat,  grimly  he  nodded. 
"Before  then  I  have  rather  an  idea  that  there 
may  be  a  deficit  among  us." 

This  expression,  in  itself  perhaps  over  pre 
cise,  was  too  much  for  her  and  the  fact  that 
it  was  showed  itself  in  her  eyes. 


132  THE   MONSTER 

Without  heeding  their  inquiry  he  nodded 
again.  "I  will  come  this  way  but  only  that 
together  we  may  leave  by  the  other." 

Again  he  nodded.  In  a  moment  he  had 
gone. 

Leilah,  closing  the  gate  behind  him  watched 
him  go.  It  was,  she  felt,  her  last  earthly  sight 
of  him.  There  would  be  no  going  away  to 
gether.  He  would  never  come  back.  Never. 
His  mother,  if  she  knew  the  truth,  could  only 
substantiate  it.  If  she  did  not,  another  would. 
Helplessly  she  held  at  the  gate.  A  vagrant 
passed,  she  did  not  see.  A  hawker  called,  she 
did  not  hear.  She  was  not  only  helpless,  she 
was  hopeless.  She  wished  that  death  really 
were,  that  it  could  beneficently  come,  take  her, 
shroud  her  in  blankness,  in  endless  oblivion  of 
what  was  and  of  what  might  have  been.  Long 
since  the  dogs,  mollified  by  Verplank's  exit, 
had  ceased  to  bark.  Shrilly  now  from  the 
church  came  boys'  fresh  voices.  The  music  of 
them  stirred  her  a  little  and  she  turned. 

Before  her,  framed  in  a  window  of  the  din 
ing  room,  Barouffski  stood.  At  sight  of  him 
she  started.  Amiably  he  smiled.  When  she 
looked  again  he  had  vanished. 

But,  in  a  moment,  in  the  doorway  beneath, 
smiling  still,  he  reappeared. 

"What  a  beautiful  day,  is  it  not?"     Oilily 


THE   MONSTER  133 

he  rubbed  his  hands.  "You  have  been  having 
visitors,  cara  mia?" 

As  he  spoke  he  moved  toward  her.  Urbanely 
he  continued!  "And  what  did  they  have  to 
say?" 

He  was  quite  near  her  now  and,  with  his 
head  held  a  trifle  to  one  side  he  was  regarding 
her  with  affectionate  indulgence,  much  as  one 
would  regard  a  child. 

"They  told  you  nothing  new,  cara  mia?" 

Without  looking  at  him,  Leilah  shook  her 
head.  "Nothing.  Nothing  at  least  that  I 
did  not  know." 

Smiling  still,  indulgent  as  before,  Barouff- 
ski  plucked  at  his  pointed  beard.  "And  what 
is  that,  cara  mia?" 

Remotely,  in  a  voice  without  colour,  as 
though  speaking  not  to  him  at  all  but  only  to 
herself,  she  answered: 

"That  I  am  the  most  miserable  woman  in 
the  world." 

Barouffski's  smile  broadened.  "Bah!  They 
exaggerated,  cara  mia.  It  is  the  way  of  the 
world.  Mon  Dieu,  a  qui  se  fier?  You  are 
not  at  all  what  they  said.  You  are — how  shall 
I  put  it — perhaps  a  bit  indiscreet.  That  is  it, 
a  bit  indiscreet."  He  pointed  to  the  bench. 
"Will  you  not  seat  yourself?" 

He  was  still  smiling,  but  the  smile  wholly 


134  THE   MONSTER 

muscular,  was  one  in  which  the  eyes  have  no 
part.  The  'Visitors"  whom  he  'affected  to 
ridicule,  alarmed  him.  They  were,  he  knew, 
quite  capable  of  taking  Leilah  away.  Her 
presence  or  absence  was  quite  one  to  him.  Only 
if  she  departed,  so  would  her  purse. 

"Will  you  not?"  he  repeated. 

"I  am  going  in." 

"Certainly,  cara  mia.  It  is  as  it  pleases  you. 
But- 

At  this  Leilah,  who  had  passed  him,  turned. 

"Well,  what?" 

"You  see,  cara  mia,  supposing  I  had  visitors. 
Supposing  rather  I  had  a  visitor.  We  are  only 
supposing,  are  we  not?  Bon!  Supposing  this 
visitor  happened  to  be  what  we  call  an  an- 
cienne,  an  old  flame,  an  inamorata  of  mine. 
Supposing  that  were  so.  Do  you  know  what 
you  could  do?" 

"No,"  Leilah  from  over  her  shoulder  an 
swered.  "Nor  do  I  care." 

"Forgive  me,  cara  mia.  You  mean  that  you 
do  not  care  to  be  informed.  Yet  you  should 
know,  for  you  could  if  you  wished  have  me 
fined.  Yes,  that  is  what  you  could  do.  You 
could  have  me  fined. 

"But  I,"  he  resumed.  "Do  you  know  in 
similar  circumstances  what  I  could  do?  Do 
you  know  rather  what  the  law  says  I  may  do? 


THE   MONSTER  135 

Do  you,  cara  mia?  Do  you?  For  really  you 
ought  to." 

But  Leilah  now  was  approaching  the  en 
trance. 

"What!"  Barouffski  exclaimed.  "You  are 
not  interested?  You  are  really  going?" 

As  he  spoke,  he  bowed.  "Bon,  a  ce  soir,  cara 
mia.  And  a  last  word.  If  I  may  advise,  do 
not  be  led  into  indiscretions." 

"Do  not,"  he  repeated,  while  shrilly  from 
the  adjacent  church  came  the  voices  of  boys 
chanting  the  final  phrase  of  the  Pater  Noster: 

"Sed  lib  era  nos  a  malo" 

"That  is  it,"  he  called  at  Leilah's  retreating 
back.  "Pray  rather  to  be  delivered  of  them. 
Otherwise— 

But  Leilah  now  had  entered  the  house. 

"Otherwise,"  he  continued  to  himself  and 
moving  to  the  kennels,  patted  the  dogs,  "other 
wise  a  sojourn  in  Poland  may  improve  you." 


IX 


"The  strawberries  were  delicious,"  Violet, 
the  following  day,  remarked  to  Leilah. 

The  two  women  were  seated  in  the  garden  of 
the  house  in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe.  It  was  just 
after  luncheon  and  between  them  was  a  table 
on  which  coffee  had  been  served.  From  with 
out  came  the  whirr  of  passing  motors,  the  cries 
of  those  hawkers  who  are  never  still.  But  the 
garden  itself  was  quiet,  scented  too  and  the 
day  superb. 

Violet,  patting  a  yawn,  resumed:  "One 
never  really  gets  strawberries  except  in  Paris. 
They  are  so  big!  And  so  expensive,  aren't 
they?  I  know  that  in  a  restaurant  a  man  gave 
one  to  the  waiter  for  a  tip." 

She  looked  about  her.  "But,  mercy!  What 
can  have  become  of  Aurelia?  She  was  to  have 
stopped  forme." 

"Don't  you  think  it  unwise  to  let  her  go  on 
the  stage?"  Leilah,  with  an  air  of  talking  for 
talk's  sake,  inquired. 

"Let  her!  But  she's  got  her  head.  I  can't 
prevent  her.  She'll  never  come  to  any  harm 
though.  She  isn't  the  kind  to  want  to  do  any- 


138  THE   MONSTER 

thing  she  thought  was  wrong.  No  indeed. 
She  would  never  think  anything  wrong  that 
she  wanted  to  do.  But  tell  me.  I  could  not 
very  well  ask  before  the  servants.  What  are 
you  going  to  do?" 

For  a  moment  Leilah  did  not  answer.  Then, 
a  bit  resignedly,  she  folded  her  hands. 

"I  do  not  see  that  I  have  the  ability  to  do 
anything." 

The  pause,  the  gesture,  the  reply,  angered 
Violet.  She  bristled. 

"Don't  be  so  modest,  you  make  me  nervous !" 

For  a  moment  she  also  paused.  Then,  rumi- 
nantly,  as  though  in  self  communion,  the  lady 
uttered  these  cryptic  words : 

"But  perhaps- 

Leilah,  who  had  turned  away,  turned  to  her. 
"Perhaps  what?" 

But  Violet,  compressing  her  lips,  assumed 
the  appearance  which  a  very  worldly,  exquis 
itely  gowned  and  beautiful  Sphinx  might  pre 
sent. 

"Perhaps  what?"  Leilah,  puzzled  by  the  at 
titude,  repeated. 

"Oh,  nothing.  That  is,  nothing  in  particu 
lar.  I  was  merely  thinking  from  battle,  mur 
der  and  sudden  death,  Good  Lord  deliver  us! 
And  yet " 

"Well?" 


THE   MONSTER  139 

Violet  looked  her  over.  "I  know  I  ought 
not  to  tell  and  for  that  very  reason  I  will. 
Your  two  husbands  are  to  fight  to-day.  They 
may  be  at  it  now " 

Abruptly  she  made  a  face,  dropped  her 
voice  and  threw  out: 

"No  such  luck." 

In  the  doorway  Barouffski  stood. 

Leilah  had  not  seen.  Inwardly  she  had 
shrivelled.  To  the  sudden  knowledge  that  the 
two  men  were  to  fight,  fear,  as  suddenly,  su 
perposed  the  conviction  that  Verplank  would 
be  killed.  It  stirred  in  her  a  wholly  animal 
longing  to  get  away  from  herself;  to  be  rid, 
however  transiently,  of  that  sense  of  horror 
and  helplessness  which  only  the  tortured 
know.  In  an  effort  to  shut  out  the  pain  of  it, 
she  closed  her  eyes. 

When  she  opened  them,  Barouffski  was 
before  her.  Affably  he  was  addressing  her 
friend. 

"Beautiful  day,  Lady  Silverstairs.  In  Lon 
don  you  do  not  often  have  such  weather.  I 
hope  Lord  Silverstairs  is  planning  to  keep 
you  here  a  very  long  time." 

"What?  What?"  Violet  in  a  crescendo  of 
surprise,  exclaimed. 

Affably,  smilingly,  unperturbably,  Barouff 
ski  reiterated  the  expression  of  his  hope. 


140  THE   MONSTER 

Icily  Violet  cut  him  short.  "With  us  it  is 
the  woman  who  makes  and  unmakes  plans." 

Barouffski,  unabashed  and  smiling,  plucked 
at  his  beard.  "A  most  excellent  custom.  Yes. 
For  when  has  reason  governed  the  world?  It 
is  only  by  the  heartstrings  that  men  can  be  led 
and  women  alone  can  lead  them." 

But  now  Violet  with  the  air  of  an  empress 
had  risen.  "Leilah,  my  motor  is  at  the  door. 
Let  me  take  you  for  a  turn  in  the  Bois." 

"Do,"  Barouffski  exclaimed,  looking  as  he 
spoke  at  Leilah.  "You  are  a  trifle  pale,  cara 
mia.  A  turn  or  two  now  in  the  Bois— 

With  a  gesture  he  signified,  that  is  what 
you  need. 

Turning  to  Violet  he  added:  "So  thought 
ful  of  you,  Lady  Silverstairs." 

In  speaking  he  bowed  for  Violet  now  was 
vacating  the  garden  and  Leilah  who  had  risen 
was  following  her. 

Barouffski  bowed  again.  "Cara  mia,  a 
pleasant  drive  to  you." 

But,  when  both  women  had  entered  the 
house,  he  sighed,  sighed  with  relief,  looked 
about  him,  consulted  his  watch,  looked  again 
about  him,  moved  to  the  entrance,  touched  a 
bell  which  presently  a  footman  answered. 

Barouffski  indicated  the  table  and  chairs. 
"Get  all  that  out  of  here." 


THE   MONSTER  141 

"Perfectly,  monsieur  le  comte,"  the  man, 
with  marked  deference,  answered  and  started 
to  do  as  bidden. 

BaroufTski  checked  him.  "In  five  or  ten 
minutes  some  gentlemen  will  come  by  the 
main  entrance.  Show  them  in  the  reception 
room.  About  the  same  time  others  will  come 
by  the  gate.  When  they  do,  see  that  I  am  noti 
fied  at  once." 

"Perfectly,  monsieur  le  comte." 

"Afterward,  when  they  are  gone,  come  back 
here  and  tidy  up." 

"Perfectly,  monsieur  le  comte." 

But  now  BaroufTski  had  turned,  he  was  en 
tering  the  house.  The  man  stuck  his  tongue 
out  at  him.  "Canaille,  va!"  he  muttered. 
Raising  his  arms,  he  added:  "Tidy  up,  eh? 
Tidy  up  what?  The  remains  of  your  con 
versation,  no  doubt.  Bah!  That  won't  be 
much."  He  laughed,  took  first  the  table,  then 
the  chairs,  vanished  with  them  and  reap 
peared. 

A  bell  at  the  gate  had  sounded,  he  hurried 
there  and  bowing,  admitted  Aurelia  and  that 
young  person's  young  man. 

The  girl  made  straight  for  the  kennels. 
"Parsnips!"  she  delightedly  exclaimed. 
"Aren't  those  two  big  brutes  simply  dear?" 

Swiftly  Emmanuel   intervened.     "Pardon, 


142  THE   MONSTER 

they  are  very  savage."  Then,  as  the  girl  hesi 
tated  he  added:  "Will  mademoiselle  give 
herself  the  trouble  to  pass  into  the  salon?" 

Aurelia  tossed  her  pretty  head.  "No,  I  like 
it  here.  Besides  I  hate  suggestions.  Tell 
Madame  BaroufTska  that  I  have  come  on  a 
most  unimportant  matter  which  will  probably 
detain  me  a  very  long  time." 

"Yes,"  her  companion  rejoined  as  the  foot 
man  retreated.  "Yes,  I  often  think  that  it  is 
only  unimportant  matters  that  are  really  mo 
mentous."  In  his  hand  was  a  stick  which  neg 
ligently  he  twirled.  "What  is  this  one,  if  I 
may  ask?" 

"I  have  forgotten." 

"Perhaps  then  it  was  really  important." 

Aurelia,  who,  with  her  delicious  face  and 
delicate  garments,  looked  like  a  wayward  an 
gel,  lifted  a  finger. 

"So  it  was!  So  it  was!  I  remember  now  I 
wanted  to  ask  her  how  she  likes  matrimony." 

"Caesar!"  the  youth  exclaimed.  "You  are 
not  collecting  data  on  the  subject,  are  you?" 

Meekly,  with  a  treacherously  innocent  air, 
the  girl  surveyed  him.  "You  wouldn't  wish 
me  to  take  leaps  in  the  dark,  would  you?" 

"Certainly  I  would.  Certainly  I  do — since 
you  are  to  take  them  with  me." 

With  the  same  wicked  look,  Aurelia  mois- 


THE   MONSTER  143 

tened  her  lips.  "What  a  beautiful  nature  you 
have!" 

Pleased  at  this,  the  little  lord  nodded. 

"I'll  tell  you  what  matrimony  is,  two  souls 
with  but  a  single  thought— 

"Yes,"  Aurelia  interrupted.  "Two  souls 
with  half  a  thought  apiece."  Rapturously  she 
sighed.  "There  is  real  bliss!" 

Buttercups  snarled.  "Oh  come,  now!  If 
you  turn  everything  into  ridicule- 
Dreamily  Aurelia  continued.  "I  asked  the 
duchess,  and  she  said— 

"The  old  harridan!" 

"You  know  her  manner" — a  manner 
which  Aurelia  instantly  made  her  own.  "My 
dear,  matrimony  is  three  months  of  adoration, 
three  months  of  introspection,  thirty  years  of 
toleration — with  the  children  to  begin  it  all 
over." 

Buttercups  frowned.  "A  rather  volu 
minous  definition." 

"Rather  luminous,  I  should  call  it." 

Frowning  still,  Buttercups  threw  out. 

"While  you  were  at  it,  it's  a  pity  you  did  not 
ask  her  what  love  is." 

But  the  sarcasm,  if  sarcasm  it  were,  con 
vulsed  Aurelia.  "Parsnips!"  she  delightedly 
exclaimed.  "You'll  never  believe  it!  She 
asked  me!" 


144  THE   MONSTER 

"Mistook  you  for  an  expert,"  Buttercups, 
glowering  at  the  beautiful,  laughing  girl 
snapped  back.  "What  did  you  say?" 

Aurelia,  her  eyes  sparkling,  her  little  white 
teeth  visible,  her  little  pink  tongue  also,  looked 
about  her,  turned,  went  to  the  bench,  got  up 
on  it  and  there,  solemnly  now  as  though  on  a 
platform,  coughed. 

"I  said,  that  while  from  studies  and  sta 
tistics  I  was  inclined  to  believe  that,  theo 
retically,  love  is  a  fermentation  of  the  mole 
cules  of  the  imagination,  actually  it  is  the 
affection  of  somebody  else." 

Blankly  Buttercups  stared.  "I  don't  under 
stand  that." 

Aurelia  coughed  again.  "I  added  that 
from  the  same  studies  and  statistics  I  was  also 
inclined  to  believe  that  love  is  the  tragedy  of 
those  who  lack  it,  the  boredom  of  those  who 
don't." 

"Eh?"  Buttercups  whined.  "I  don't  under 
stand  that  either." 

"I  further  stated  that  love  is  a  specific  emo 
tion,  more  or  less  exclusive  in  selection,  more 
— or  less — permanent  in  duration  and  due  to 
a  mental  disturbance,  in  itself  caused  by  a 
law  of  attraction  which  somebody  or  other 
said  \vas  the  myth  of  happiness,  invented  by 
the  devil  for  man's  despair." 


THE   MONSTER  145 

Helplessly  Buttercups  groaned.  "I  don't 
understand  that  at  all." 

With  birdlike  ease  Aurelia  hopped  from 
the  bench  and  with  consoling  delicacy  nodded : 

"Violet  said  she  didn't  either." 

Buttercups  brightened.  "Now  there's  a 
woman  of  sense." 

Very  sweetly  Aurelia  nodded  again.  "Lei- 
lah  Barouffska  said  she  did  understand,  so  I 
may  suppose  that  she  is  stupid." 

At  the  shot — which  missed  him — Butter 
cups  tormented  the  tip  of  his  nose. 

"No  doubt,  she  does  seem  to  have  made  a 
mess  of  things.  Why  now  did  she  leave  her 
first  husband?" 

Aurelia  looked  down  and  away. 

"It  is  not  a  thing  I  could  mention." 

Buttercups  gave  a  little  jump.    "What?" 

Perversely,  her  lovely  eyes  still  lowered, 
Aurelia  added: 

"She  caught  him  in  the  act." 

Buttercups  jumped  again. 

Aurelia  blushed  or  rather  appeared  to  do 
so.  "With  her  own  eyes  she  saw  him  eating 
fish  with  his  knife." 

But  Buttercups  had  rallied.  "Now,  Aure 
lia,"  he  protested,  "I  have  heard  too  many  lies 
about  myself,  too  many  confounded  lies,  to 
believe  any  such  story." 


146  THE   MONSTER 

Superciliously,  her  delicate  nose  in  the 
air,  Aurelia  looked  him  over.  "Ah,  in 
deed!  But  then  you  see  sensible  people 
never  object  to  the  lies  that  are  told  about 
them.  What  we  do  object  to  is  the  truth. 
Now  when  we  are  married — if  we  ever 


are- 


"Aurelia,"  the  poor  devil  pathetically  in 
terrupted,  "you  never  say  when  we  are  mar 
ried  without  adding  if  we  ever  are!" 

"That's  to  teach  you  not  to  take  things  for 
granted.  I  have  been  engaged  before — and 
may  be  again." 

"B-before!"  the  flustered  Buttercups  stut 
tered.  "A-again!" 

Frostily  this  ingenue  considered  the  youth. 
"Parsnips,  don't  look  at  me  in  that  fashion, 
you  inflame  me." 

She  cocked  an  ear.    "What's  that?" 

At  the  gate  the  bell  was  ringing  and  un- 
perceived  by  either  Emmanuel  had  reap 
peared.  The  footman  was  descending  the  gar 
den.  Midway  he  stopped. 

"I  have  the  honour  to  inform  mademoiselle 
that  madame  la  comtesse  is  momentarily 
awaited." 

He  bowed,  moved  on,  opened  the  gate 
through  which  then  a  brief  procession  passed: 
— S'lverstairs,  a  green  bag  uader  his  arm;  de 


THE   MONSTER  147 

Fresnoy,  a  stick  under  his ;  an  old  man  with 
a  small  valise;  finally  Verplank. 

Verplank,  raising  his  hat,  approach  Aure- 
lia.  De  Fresnoy,  after  saluting  the  young 
woman,  addressed  the  old  man. 

But  Silverstairs,  sidling  up  to  Buttercups 
and  indicating  Aurelia,  whispered: 

"Get  her  away,  there's  to  be  a  fight." 

"The  deuce  there  is!"  Buttercups  exclaimed. 

For  a  moment  he  looked  helplessly  about 
and  made  a  little  futile  gesture.  "If  I  ask 
her  to  go  she'll  stay." 

Silverstairs  pulled  at  his  moustache.  "Then 
tell  her  to  stay  and  she'll  go." 

But  such  strategy  was  needless.  Aurelia 
had  no  intention  of  loitering  among  these  men, 
not  one  of  whom  interested  her  remotely. 
With  a  glimpse  of  her  pretty  teeth  to  Ver 
plank  and  a  nod  at  the  others,  she  passed,  fol 
lowed  by  Buttercups,  through  the  gate  which 
the  footman  held  open. 

Meanwhile  the  dogs  were  barking  and, 
from  the  house  beyond,  BaroufTski  appeared. 
With  him  were  friends  of  his,  Palencia,  Tysz- 
kiewicz ;  also  a  young  man  with  a  serious  face 
who,  like  the  old  man,  had  with  him  a  case 
which  gingerly  he  put  on  the  ground. 

Verplank  glanced  at  them,  went  to  the 
bench  and  began  removing  his  coat. 


148  THE   MONSTER 

The  night  before  he  had  dreamed  pleasur- 
ably,  as  the  great  beasts  of  the  jungles  dream, 
of  blood  and  the  joy  of  killing.  He  had 
dreamed  also  and  less  agreeably  that  Leilah's 
story  was  true.  However  he  had  denied  it,  he 
did  not  know  but  that  it  might  be.  Nonethe 
less  he  doubted.  He  doubted  it  for  the  most 
human  of  reasons,  because  he  wanted  to.  He 
doubted  it  for  another  and  a  better  reason, 
because  his  intuitions  so  prompted.  He  had 
yet  another  reason,  one  less  valid  perhaps  but 
cogent,  the  dissimilarity  between  Leilah  and 
himself.  The  contrast  was  so  marked  that  they 
might  have  come  of  alien  races,  from  different 
^ones. 

On  leaving  her  house  other  differences 
/had  occurred  to  him,  differences  not  physical 
'but  moral.  It  is  ridiculous,  he  had  told  him 
self.  Nonetheless  he  dreamed  that  the  story 
was  true. 

Meanwhile  the  parliamentaries  had  not  been 
entirely  successful.  The  note  dispatched  from 
Voisins  had  resulted  that  evening  in  a  con 
ference  between  Verplank's  seconds  and  Ba- 
rouffski's.  These  latter,  Tyszkiewicz  and  Pa- 
lencia,  had  begun  by  insisting  that  it  was  their 
principal  who  was  aggrieved,  that  Verplank, 
in  attempting  to  address  a  lady  whom  he  knew 
did  not  wish  to  speak  to  him,  had  been  wholly 


THE   MONSTER  149 

at  fault  and  was  deprived  in  consequence  of 
the  choice  of  weapons. 

To  this  de  Fresnoy  had  objected  that  Ver- 
plank  knew  nothing  of  the  kind,  that  in  ad 
dressing  or  in  attempting  to  address  the  lady, 
he  had  acted  in  accordance  with  the  usages 
of  the  world :  moreover  assuming  him  to  have 
been  in  error  in  thinking  that  the  lady  did  not 
object  to  being  addressed,  her  slightest  indi 
cation  to  the  contrary  would  have  been  super- 
sufficient  to  make  him  desist,  the  result  be 
ing  that  Barouffski's  intervention  reflected  on 
his  good-breeding  and  was  therefore  an 
insult. 

This  view  of  the  matter  Barouffski's  sec 
onds  refused  to  accept.  They  represented  that 
it  were  difficult  for  the  lady  to  have  more 
punctiliously  informed  Verplank  of  her  dis 
inclination  to  be  addressed  by  him  than  she 
had  already  done  in  obtaining  a  divorce. 

At  the  easy  logic  de  Fresnoy  laughed.  Ac 
cording  to  him,  all  that  was  beside  the  issue. 
He  declared  that  many  divorced  couples  were 
better  friends  afterward  than  they  had  found 
it  possible  to  be  before.  In  support  of  the 
statement  he  cited  history:  he  cited  the  case  of 
Henri  IV  and  the  Reine  Margot.  He  did 
more  than  cite,  he  quoted  the  chronicles  of 
Pierre  TEstoile,  and  he  insisted  that  if  his  view 


150  THE   MONSTER 

were  not  accepted  the  conference   must  dis 
solve  and  an  arbiter  be  convened. 

In  face  of  these  arguments  advanced  to  pro 
vincials  by  a  Parisian,  advanced  too  with  that 
tone  of  authority  which  only  a  man  sure  of  his 
ground  or  of  his  assurance  may  maintain  and 
advanced,  moreover,  to  men  not  over  sure  of 
their  own,  the  latter  hesitated. 

Then,  as  though  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of 
the  parodox  of  which  de  Fresnoy  had  deliv 
ered  himself  at  Voisins,  the  quip  that  a  man 
is  rarely  killed  except  by  his  seconds,  Silver- 
stairs  who,  thus  far  throughout  the  conference, 
had  smoked  in  placid  silence,  suddenly  stuck 
his  oar  in. 

"Why  not  toss  for  it?" 

,  Tyszkiewicz  and  Palencia,  hesitating  still, 
agreed.  A  coin  was  flipped,  heads  for  Ver- 
plank,  tails  for  BaroufTski.  Tails  it  was.  Ba- 
rouffski  was  accorded  the  choice  of  arms,  foils 
were  designated  by  his  seconds  and  the  meeting 
was  arranged  to  be  held  in  his  garden,  at  two 
the  next  day. 

Verplank  would  have  preferred  pistols. 
But,  informed  of  the  result,  he  dreamed  pleas- 
urably.  The  encounter  was  the  main  thing. 
Presently  sleep  sank  him  deeper.  Life  and 
death  ceased  to  be.  He  became  part  of  the  in 
choate  and  primordial.  Then,  from  the  voicte" 


THE  MONSTER  1 51 

in  which  he  lay,  lightly,  delicately,  imper 
ceptibly,  an  artery  reached  and  drew  him.  But 
his  scattered  selves,  the  objective,  subjective, 
superjective,  satisfied  with  their  temporary  de 
centralisation,  resisted.  In  the  subtle  struggle 
a  memory,  catalogued  Leilah,  was  aroused. 
The  syllables  of  the  name  resounded  remotely, 
like  a  damp  drum  beaten  obscurely  behind  the 
shelves  of  thought.  They  conveyed  no  mean 
ing  and,  before  they  could  suggest  any,  they 
passed,  drifted  by  the  currents  of  unconscious 
ness.  But  at  once,  those  currents,  barred  by 
assembling  ideas  broke  to  the  murmur  of  the 
vocables — Leilah!  Leilah!  Other  memories, 
incidents,  possibilities  eddied  among  them  and 
the  sleeper,  awakening,  found  himself  con 
fronted  by  the  tragic  mystery  which  the  name 
revived. 

Immediately  the  picture  that  had  formed  it 
self  before  him  at  Voisins  returned.  From  it 
the  Why  had  gone  but  the  obstacle  remained, 
and,  as  he  got  from  the  bed,  he  promised  him 
self  to  demolish  it. 

Now,  in  the  hostile  enclosure,  as  the  dogs 
barked  and  BaroufTski  appeared,  Verplank  re 
moved  his  coat,  undid  his  collar,  rolled  up  his 
sleeves. 

Beside  him,  bending  over  a  case,  the  old 
man  mumbled.  He  was  a  surgeon.  The  hour 


152  THE   MONSTER 

was  not  to  his  liking.  He  believed  in  duels, 
they  were  a  source  of  revenue  to  him,  but  he 
believed  in  fighting  on  an  empty  stomach  and, 
in  the  afternoon,  who  had  that? 

He  looked  up  at  Verplank.  "Monsieur,  you 
are  young,  you  are  brave,  I  doubt  not  you  are 
also  adroit.  But  had  I  been  you,  when  your 
seconds  asked,  as  I  may  suppose  they  asked: 
'Which  shall  it  be,  the  pistol  at  twenty  paces 
or  the  sword?'  I  would  have  said  to  them: 
'Give  me  the  sword  at  twenty  paces.'  Yes; 
that  is  what  I  would  have  said." 

Verplank  ignored  him  utterly.  In  the  cen 
ter  of  the  garden  the  seconds  grouped  to 
gether,  were  concluding  details.  Beyond,  near 
the  house,  Barouffski  stood.  He  also  was  now 
bare-armed.  Near  him,  emptying  a  case,  was 
the  young  man  with  the  serious  face.  Beside 
him,  placed  upright  against  a  wall,  were  two 
long  green  bags.  From  the  street  came  the 
usual  rumble,  the  noise  of  motors,  the  cries  of 
hawkers,  the  snorting  of  stallions,  the  clatter 
of  hoofs. 

Silverstairs,  abandoning  the  others  went 
over  to  Verplank. 

uDe  Fresnoy  has  been  chosen  director." 

Verplank,  from  his  trowsers  pocket,  had 
taken  a  pair  of  gloves.  The  palm  of  one  of 
them,  previously  moistened,  had  been  dusted 


THE   MONSTER  153 

with  xQgjp  Now,  as  he  put  it  on,  he  looked 
across  at  Barouffski  who  was  looking  at  him. 
The  man's  bare  arms  were  hairy  and  the  sight 
of  them  was  repugnant  to  Verplank.  At  once 
all  the  jealousy,  all  the  hate  of  the  male, 
mounted  like  wine  to  his  head.  He  coloured, 
his  hand  shook.  Then,  resolutely,  he  reacted. 
In  a  moment  he  had  again  control  of  himself 
and  it  was  idly,  with  an  air  of  indifference, 
as  he  finished  with  his  glove,  that,  in  reference 
to  the  dinner  that  evening,  he  said: 

"Are  you  to  have  many  people  to-night?" 

Silverstairs,  delighted  that  Verplank,  show 
ing  up  in  such  form,  should  be  so  sure  of  the 
result,  laughed.  "No,  it  is  to  be  small  and 
early.  Afterward  we  go  on  to  a  play.  The 
missis  has  a  box  for  something,  the  Gymnase 
I  think." 

Verplank  bent  over  and  turned  up  the  ends 
of  his  trowsers.  A  moment  before  he  had  been 
considering  methods  of  attack,  in  particular 
a  direct  riposte  after  a  certain  parade  and  it 
was  springingly,  as  though  delivering  it,  that 
he  straightened. 

But  now  de  Fresnoy  approached.  Silver- 
stairs  moved  to  one  side  where  he  was  joined  by 
Tyszkiewicz,  a  thin,  tall  man  with  a  prom 
inent  nose  and  an  air  vaguely  pedagogic,  and 
by  Palencia  who,  with  great  black  eyebrows 


154  THE   MONSTER 

that  met  and  a  full  black  beard,  looked  like 
Fra  Diavolo  disguised  as  a  clubman. 

From  one  of  the  long  green  bags  de  Fres- 
noy  had  taken  a  pair  of  foils.  These  he  of 
fered,  hilt  foremost,  to  Verplank  who  grasped 
one  and  then  to  gauge  its  temper,  or  his  own, 
lashed  the  air  with  it.  The  movement  revealed 
a  suppleness  of  arm,  a  muscular  ease,  the 
swelling  biceps  which  training  alone  provides. 

Save  Barouffski,  no  one  noticed.  For  a  mo 
ment  his  eyes  shifted  absently.  It  was  as 
though  he  too  had  meditated  a  coup  and  now 
was  meditating  another.  Meanwhile  he  also 
had  received  a  foil. 

"Messieurs!"  de  Fresnoy  called.  He  spoke 
in  a  loud,  clear  voice.  He  had  moved  back  and 
stood  at  an  angle  to  Barouffski  and  Verplank. 
Opposite,  at  an  equal  angle  were  the  seconds 
and  surgeons.  All  now  were  so  stationed  that 
they  formed  a  sort  of  cross. 

"Messieurs,  I  do  not  need  to  remind  you 
of  the  common  loyalty  to  be  observed.  What 
I  have  to  say  is  that  the  encounter  will  pro 
ceed  in  engagements  of  three  minutes,  followed 
each  by  three  minutes  of  repose,  until  one  of 
you  is  incapacitated." 

De  Fresnoy  looked  from  BaroufTski  to 
Verplank.  At  once  in  his  loud,  clear  voice  he 
called: 


THE  MONSTER  155 

"On  guard!" 

The  two  men  fell  into  position.  De  Fres- 
noy  moved  forward,  took  in  either  hand  the 
foils  at  the  points,  drew  them  together  until 
they  met,  left  them  so  and  moved  back. 

"Allez,  messieurs!" 

At  the  word  Allez,  or,  in  English,  go,  and 
without  waiting  for  the  term  Messieurs  that 
followed,  instantly  Barouffski  lunged.  His  foil 
pierced  Verplank  in  the  cheek  and  touched  the 
upper  jaw. 

Verplank  had  a  vision  of  a  footman  peering 
from  a  window,  a  taste  of  something  hot  and 
acrid  in  his  mouth,  a  sense  of  pain,  the  sensa 
tion  of  \aiip_erine  fury. 

De  Fresnoy's  face  had  grown  red  as  his 
neckcloth.  He  branished  his  stick. 

"Monsieur!"  he  cried  at  Barouffski.  "Your 
conduct  is  odious.  You  shall  answer  to  me 
for  it." 

Barouffski  bowed.  "For  the  expression 
which  it  has  pleased  you  to  employ,  you  shall 
answer  to  me." 

"Permit  me!  Permit  me!"  Tyszkiewicz  in 
terjected.  "To  what  do  you  object?" 

Angrily  de  Fresnoy  turned  at  him.  "Your 
principal  drew  before  the  order.  He— 

"Permit  me!  Permit  me!"  Tyszkiewicz  in 
terrupted.  "The  word  Allez  is  an  order.  The 


156  THE   MONSTER 

moment  it  is  uttered  hostilities  begin.  The 
term  Messieurs  is  but  a  polite  accessory,  a 
term  which  may  or  may  not  be  employed." 

Insolently  de  Fresnoy  considered  him.  "I 
have  no  lessons  to  receive  from  you." 

"Permit  me !    Permit  me— 

But  de  Fresnoy  had  turned  on  his  heel.  Be 
fore  him  Verplank  stood,  Silverstairs  on  one 
side,  the  old  surgeon  on  the  other.  The  young 
surgeon  had  joined  them.  Beyond,  Barouff- 
ski  was  examining  the  point  of  his  foil. 

From  Verplank's  mouth  and  face  blood  was 
running.  The  wound  had  not  improved  his 
appearance.  The  old  surgeon,  on  tiptoes,  was 
staunching  it. 

"What  I  like,"  he  confided,  speaking  the 
while  very,  unctuously  as  though  what  he  was 
saying  would  be  a  comfort  to  Verplank;  "what 
I  like  is  to  attend  to  gentlemen  whose  wives 
have  deceived  them.  Outraged  husbands, 
monsieur,  that  is  my  specialty!" 

Verplank  brushed  him  aside,  shook  his  foil, 
and  called  at  de  Fresnoy. 

"Are  the  three  minutes  up?" 

"Monsieur!"  the  old  surgeon  protested. 

The  young  surgeon  intervened. 

"But,  monsieur— 

De  Fresnoy  motioned  at  them. 

"Is  he  in  a  condition  to  continue?" 


THE  MONSTER  157 

"Why  not?"  Verplank  scornfully  replied. 

He  raised  his  left  hand,  and,  with  a  gesture 
of  excuse,  turned  and  spat.  He  looked  up. 
His  mouth  was  on  fire,  his  jaw  burned,  the 
wound  in  his  cheek  was  a  flame.  Yet  these 
things  but  added  to  the  intensity  of  his  eyes. 
They  blazed.  There  was  blood  on  his  face, 
on  his  chin,  on  his  shirt,  on  his  feet.  He 
was  hideous.  But  he  was  a  man,  and  a  mad 
one. 

"He  ought  to  be  horsewhipped,"  muttered 
Silverstairs,  glaring  as  he  spoke  at  Barouffski, 
who  was  talking  to  his  seconds. 

"On  guard,  then!"  called  de  Fresnoy. 

"Permit  me,  permit  me,"  cried  Tyszkiewicz. 
"The  point  of  my  principal's  sword  is  broken." 

"Give  him  another  then,"  de  Fresnoy 
roughly  threw  out.  Insolently  he  added: 
"And  teach  him  how  to  use  it."  In  a  mo 
ment,  when  from  the  other  bag,  a  foil  had 
been  got  and  measured,  "On  guard,"  he  re 
peated. 

Again  he  united  the  foils.  Again  he  gave 
the  command. 

For  a  moment  the  weapons  clashed. 

Suddenly  and  excitedly  Palencia  cried: 
"My  principal  is  touched." 

"Halt,"  de  Fresnoy,  intervening  with  raised 
stick,  commanded. 


158  THE  MONSTER 

Verplank  moved  back.  "Damn  him,"  he 
muttered,  "I  haven't  done  with  him  yet." 

About  Barouffski  now,  Palencia  and  the 
young  man  with  the  serious  face  had  come. 
The  latter  was  examining  Barouffski's  right 
arm.  On  it  a  thin  red  line  was  visible.  Very 
gravely  the  young  man  looked  up. 

"My  client  is  disabled.  Profound  incision 
in  the  region  of  the  flexor  digitorum  sublimis 
accompanied  by  a  notable  effusion  of  blood." 

The  old  surgeon  chuckled.  Confidentially 
as  before  he  addressed  Verplank.  "I  know 
that  term.  It  means  a  scratch.  Those  ladies 
there,  it  must  amuse  even  them." 

As  he  spoke  he  indicated  a  window  at  which 
Violet  and  Leilah  had  appeared,  but  from 
which  now  Leilah  was  retreating. 

Verplank  did  not  hear,  did  not  see.  The 
young  surgeon,  resuming,  had  announced  him 
self  as  opposed  to  a  continuation  of  the  encoun 
ter.  It  was  this  that  preoccupied  Verplank. 

Loudly  and  angrily  he  cried:  "Let's  have 
pistols  then.  That  man  can  use  his  left  hand 
and  I'll  do  the  same. 

"Cristi!  La  jolie  dame!"  the  old  surgeon 
muttered  to  himself. 

In  the  doorway  Leilah  had  come.  Hur 
riedly  she  moved  to  Verplank.  As  she  did  so 
Barouffski  tried  to  prevent  her. 


THE   MONSTER  159 

"Cara  mia,  I  must  beg  of  you— 

He  had  got  in  her  way  but  she  eluded  him, 
while  the  other  men  looked  curiously  at  this 
woman  who  now  agitatedly  was  addressing 
Verplank. 

"Don't  fight  any  more,  don't!" 

Roughly  Verplank  answered:  "I  haven't 
begun." 

"Sir,"  cried  BarourTski.  "I  can  permit  no 
conversation  with  this  lady." 

Verplank  ignoring  BarourTski  as  utterly  as 
he  had  ignored  the  surgeon,  looked  at  Leilah. 

"That  story  of  yours  is— 

But  whatever  he  may  have  intended  to  say, 
BaroufTski  interrupted.  He  was  shouting  at 
Verplank,  calling,  too,  at  Leilah  whom  he 
had  got  by  the  arm  and  whom  he  would  have 
drawn  away,  but  this  Verplank  prevented. 
Shifting  his  foil  to  his  left  hand,  with  his  right 
he  seized  BarourTski  and  with  a  twist  which 
separated  him  from  Leilah,  shoved  him  aside. 

"To  your  shambles!"  he  called  at  him. 

But  already  the  others  were  intervening. 
Tyszkiewicz  with  his  eternal  "Permit  me,"  got 
between  the  two  men.  Palencia  held  BaroufT- 
ski  by  the  shoulder.  Silverstairs  drew  Ver 
plank  away,  while  de  Fresnoy,  viewing  the 
situation  as  hopeless,  declared  the  duel  at  an 
end. 


160  THE   MONSTER 

The  actions  of  all  were  practically  so  si 
multaneous  that  they  were  as  one  to  Leilah 
who,  bewildered  by  the  confusion  which  she 
herself  had  caused,  horrified  by  Verplank's 
appearance  and  tortured  by  the  riddle  of  his 
interrupted  words,  now,  over  the  heads  of  the 
others,  again  called  to  him: 

"You  say  that  the  story  is— 

"At  five!"  Verplank  threw  back. 

Barouffski,  bursting  with  rage  and  impo 
tence,  shouted: 

"I  say  this  conversation  must  cease." 

The  old  surgeon,  nudging  his  colleague, 
laughed: 

"There  is  my  specialty!" 

Both  surgeons  then  were  occupied  with  their 
bags.  De  Fresnoy,  overhearing  the  remark, 
could  not  but  smile.  To  conceal  it  he  turned 
to  the  gate  where  he  was  joined  by  Silverstairs 
and  where  at  once,  Palencia  and  Tyszkiewicz 
followed,  leaving  in  the  center  of  the  garden 
Leilah  and  her  two  husbands,  one  of  whom 
with  a  shrug  which  for  an  American  was 
perhaps  rather  French,  went  to  the  bench 
where  his  coat  lay. 

In  this  instance  again  the  actions  of  all  so 
closely  coincided  that  barely  an  instant  inter 
vened  before  Leilah  was  throwing  after  Ver 
plank  the  two  syllables  he  had  thrown  at  her. 


THE  MONSTER  161 

"At  five!" 

Later  she  was  unconscious  of  having  done 
so.  But  Barouffski  heard  and  presently,  when 
the  others  had  gone  and  in  this  garden  those 
two  were  alone,  with  angry  suspicion  he  con 
fronted  her. 

"Five!    What  is  that?    What  does  it  mean?" 

Leilah  had  turned  to  go.  A  bit  unsteadily 
she  moved  on,  reached  the  entrance,  leaned 
there  for  support. 

But  Barouffski  was  at  her  heels. 

"Five,"  he  repeated.  "He  said  it,  you  said 
it,  what  does  it  mean?" 

"It  means  that  God  willing  some  day  I 
may  have  peace." 

She  had  half-turned.  She  turned  again.  In 
a  moment  she  had  gone. 

Menacingly  Barouffski's  eyes  followed  her. 
"That's  what  five  means,  does  it?" 

Then  he  too  turned.  Nearby,  on  the  mar 
ble  chair,  were  his  coat  and  waistcoat.  Slowly, 
thoughtfully,  he  put  them  on.  As  he  did  so  he 
noticed  the  dogs.  It  may  have  seemed  to  him 
then  that  they  were  his  only  friends.  Longly 
he  looked  their  way. 

Suddenly,  as  though  illumination  had  come, 
he  touched  a  bell  and  looked  up  at  Leilah's 
window. 

After  a  brief  delay,  Emmanuel  appeared. 


162  THE  MONSTER 

"Shut  the  gate,"  BaroufTski  ordered. 

"Perfectly,  monsieur  le  comte,"  the  foot 
man  very  deferentially  replied  and  started  to 
do  as  bidden. 

BaroufTski  checked  him.  Indicating  the 
lower  window,  he  added: 

"At  five  or  thereabouts  be  in  there.  I  will 
tell  you  then  what  to  do.  You  hear  me?" 

"Perfectly,  monsieur  le  comte." 

Again  BaroufTski  glanced  at  the  upper  win 
dow.  As  he  glanced  he  smiled. 

"Cara  mia,  five  may  mean  more  things  than 
you  say,  more  even  than  you  think." 

He  was  still  smiling  but  it  was  not  a  pleas 
ant  smile  to  see. 

Beneath  his  breath,  Emmanuel,  who  was 
looking  at  him,  muttered : 

"Quelle  gueule  de  maquereau!" 


X 

"Gracious!"  Violet  exclaimed.  She  had 
been  smoking  and  now  in  putting  a  cigarette 
in  a  cendrier  she  had  succeeded  in  overturn 
ing  it.  Undismayed  she  looked  at  a  clock. 
"Gracious!"  she  repeated.  "Since  that  stupid 
duel,  I  have  sat  here  an  hour." 

Leisurely  the  lady  arose.  She  was  a  glow 
ing  object  in  this  room  which,  filled  with  costly 
futilities  and  furnished  in  canary  and  black, 
otherwise  was  Empire  and  brilliant.  The 
main  entrance,  hung  with  heavy  portieres  of 
yellow  damask  had,  opposite  it,  across  the 
room,  a  tapestry  panel  which  masked  a  spiral 
stairway  that  led  below.  To  one  side,  at  an 
elaborate  table,  which  now  the  overturned  cen- 
drierhad,  strewn  with  ashes,  Leilah  was  seatecT 
SeTTTna  her,  through  an  open  window,  shone 
the  eager  sun.  Before  her,  rising  from  a  sofa 
was  her  friend. 

Leilah  wished  that  she  would  go,  wished 
too  that  she  would  stay,  wished  rather — as  at 
times  we  all  wish  of  those  who  are  near  us— 
that  she  were  different,  less  mpjidaine  perhaps, 
more  simple.    To  Violet,  the  spectacle  in  the 


164  THE   MONSTER 

garden  had  been  tedious.  To  Leilah  it  was 
horrible.  Moreover  the  atmosphere  of  blood 
and  hate,  the  enigma  of  Verplank's  words,  the 
menaces  of  Barouff  ski's  eyes,  these  things 
frightened  her,  inducing  a  dread  which 
seemed  to  brood  not  in  the  mind  but  in  the 
body.  She  could  have  put  a  hand  to  her  gir 
dle  and  have  said:  "It  is  here."  In  addition 
she  felt — as  in  every  spiritual  crisis  we  all  do 
—alone.  Of  this  she  could  not  tell  Violet. 
She  felt  that  she  lacked  the  power  to  express 
it  and  that  Violet  lacked  the  ability  to  under 
stand.  Pain  has  accents  which  only  its  grad 
uates  know.  Violet,  in  all  her  brilliant  life, 
had  never  shed  a  poignant  tear. 

"What  do  you  propose  to  do  now?"  the 
lady  was  asking. 

Cheerlessly  Leilah  replied:    "My  duty." 

Here  was  something  which  Violet  did  un 
derstand.  Brightly  she  nodded. 

"Yes,  and  I  may  tell  you  that  it  is  your  duty 
to  preserve  your  looks  and  avoid  a  scandal.  I 
did  not  at  all  like  your  fantasia  in  the  garden. 
A  gentlewoman  never  does  anything  important 
and  that  was  an  important  thing.  In  no  time 
it  will  be  all  over  the  place.  You  can  believe 
that,  can't  you?" 

"I  don't  know  what  to  believe." 

Violet  laughed.    "I  always  believe  what  I 


THE  MONSTER  165 

like.  That  I  find  so  satisfactory.  Apropos. 
What  was  that  story  about  which  Verplank 
was  shouting?  Mercy!  I  could  have  heard 
him  a  mile  away." 

In  weary  protest  Leilah  shook  her  head. 
"You  know  I  can't  tell  you." 

"The  same  old  thing,  was  it?  But  how 
antiquated  you  are!  Really  it  is  piteous. 
There  are  no  secrets  any  more.  All  that  sort 
of  thing  went  out  with  hoopskirts.  Private 
life  which  used  to  be  a  sealed  book  has  become 
an  open  newspaper.  It  is  plain  for  instance, 
plain  to  everybody,  plain  as  a  pikestaff  that 
you  are  still  in  love  with  Verplank.  What  you 
left  him  for  the  Lord  in  his  infinite  wisdom 
and  mercy  only  knows.  That  is  a  secret  cer 
tainly  but  only  because  you  choose  to  make  it 
one.  It  is  no  secret  to  me  though  that  you 
are  dying  to  go  back  to  him.  But  don't  you 
know  you  can't?  Don't  you  know  it?  Don't 
you  know  that  you  can't  budge  an  inch  until 
you  have  shipped  Barouffski?  Now  how  are 
you  going  to  do  that?  Tell  me." 

Leilah  made  a  pass  with  a  hand.  It  was  as 
though,  in  some  rite  known  but  to  her,  she  were 
consulting  the  lap  of  the  invisible  gods  and, 
in  it,  the  equally  invisible  future. 

"Then  I  will  tell  you.  You  have  got  to  buy 
him  off.  Listen  to  this.  I  will  pack  Silver- 


166  THE   MONSTER 

stairs  straight  to  the  Embassy.  There  he  will 
get  all  the  law  and  most  of  the  prophets. 
Meanwhile  promise  that  you'll  keep  your 
head." 

"I  will  try,"  Leilah,  mechanically,  her 
thoughts  afar,  replied. 

"There!"  Violet  exclaimed.  "That's  right. 
When  there  is  a  divorce  in  the  air  it's  so  much 
better  to  try  than  to  be  tried." 

At  the^aaaejest  she  laughed,  embraced  her 
friend.  In  a  moment  she  had  gone,  distribut 
ing  as  she  went  a  faint,  sweet  smell  of  orris. 

Leilah  who  had  risen  moved  to  the  win 
dow  and  looked  out  at  the  gate  through  which 
Verplank  would  come.  It  was  as  she  had  said : 
She  did  not  know  what  to  believe  and  mutely 
for  a  moment  she  prayed  for  guidance. 

"O,  Lords  of  Karma,  Watchers  of  the  Seven 
Spheres,  grant  me  so  to  live  that,  hereafter,  I 
may  say,  I  have  harmed  no  heart,  I  have  made 
no  one  weep.  Out  of  your  infinite  bounty 
grant  that  somewhere,  sometime,  there  may  be 
peace  to  Gulian's  soul  and  mine." 

The  prayer  concluded  she  felt  securer.  Mo 
mentarily  the  cancer  of  anxiety  had  ceased  to 
gnaw,  the  fascination  of  fear  had  departed. 
In  the  respite  she  turned  to  the  clock.  It 
was  nearly  five  and  she  rang  for  one  of  her 
women. 


THE  MONSTER  167 

"Parker,"  she  began,  when  the  servant  ap 
peared. 

uYes,  my  lady." 

"Presently,  in  a  few  minutes,  a  gentleman 
will  come  by  the  gate.  Be  there  and  bring  him 
here.  Bring  him  through  the  dining  room  and 
up  the  back  way.  If  possible,  I  prefer  that  no 
one  should  see  him." 

"Yes,  my  lady.    Thank  your  ladyship." 

At  once,  with  that  air  which  those  acquire 
who  attended  to  delicate  matters,  the  woman 
drew  aside  the  tapestry  that  masked  the  stair, 
which  then  discreetly,  almost  atiptoe,  she  de 
scended. 

As  the  tapestry  fell  again,  instantly  there  re 
turned  to  Leilah  the  sense  of  evil  and  impend 
ing  ill.  The  brilliant  room  seemed  full  of  ter 
rors.  In  each  bright  corner  a  danger  lurked. 
So  strong  was  the  impression  that  she  felt  it 
must  be  she  was  being  warned,  that  she  was 
being  visited  by  those  obscure  phenomena 
which  occultists  call  impacts  from  the  astral, 
and  that  these  were  urging  her  to  go,  to  meet 
Verplank  without,  in  the  garden,  in  the  street, 
anywhere  except  in  this  fastidiousness. 

Coerced  by  the  impression,  she  entered  an 
adjoining  room,  got  there  a  fichu  which  she 
put  on  her  head,  a  light  wrap  which  she  drew 
about  her.  Excited  as  she  was,  unaided  as 


168  THE  MONSTER 

well,  it  took  several  minutes  before  she  could 
find  these  accouterments.  When,  at  last  equip 
ped,  she  re-entered  the  sitting  room,  she 
started. 

Before  her,  his  hat  on,  one  side  of  his  face 
medallioned  with  courtplaster,  stood  Ver- 
plank. 

At  sight  of  Leilah,  he  removed  his  hat  which 
he  tossed  on  the  sofa  and  said  at  once  and  sim 
ply  enough : 

"That  story  of  yours  is  false  as  Judas." 

"Gulian!"  At  the  moment  it  was  all  she 
found,  but  then  fancy  a  blind  man  dazzled. 

Verplank  nodded.  "Yes.  The  letters  you 
received  at  Coronado — there  were  three  of 
them,  were  there  not?  three  written  on  gray 
paper  each  signed  Effingham  Verplank?— 
well,  my  father  wrote  them,  that's  true 
enough,  but  he  wrote  them  to  your  aunt,  your 
mother's  sister,  Hilda  Hemingway.  Did  you 
never  hear  that  the  governor  had  an  affair  with 
her?  Did  you?" 

Leilah's  face  spoke  for  her.  From  the  be 
wilderment  there,  it  was  obvious  that  of  it  all 
she  was  ignorant. 

With  an  uplift  of  the  chin  Verplank  consid 
ered  her. 

"That's  odd,  girls  generally  only  hear  what 
they  ought  not  to.  However,  Hemingway  be- 


THE  MONSTER  169 

came  suspicious — for  very  good  reasons,  no 
doubt,  or,  if  you  prefer,  for  very  bad  ones — 
the  result  being  that  his  wife  turned  the  let 
ters  over  for  safe  keeping  to  your  mother. 
When  she  died  your  father  found  them.  He 
did  not  stop  there,  he  showed  them  to  my 
mother.  My  mother  knew  the  facts,  but  she 
said  your  father  was  so  convinced  of  your 
mother's  infidelity  that  it  seemed  a  pity  to  dis 
abuse  him.  Those  were  her  very  words  to  me 
to-day." 

"Gulian!"  Still  Leilah  found  but  that. 
Visibly  the  light  was  there.  As  yet  she  could 
not  credit  it. 

Again,  but  now  appreciatively,  Verplank 
nodded.  "Yes.  I  know.  It  does  seem  queer. 
But  then  my  mother  is  not  the  ordinary  wom 
an.  She  thought  the  governor  so  created  to 
conquer  that  it  no  more  occurred  to  her  to  sit 
in  judgment  on  his  victims  than  it  occurred  to 
her  to  sit  on  him.  In  the  true  spirit  of  Chris 
tian  charity  she  overlooked  it  all." 

Verplank  paused,  opened  and  closed  a  hand. 
"It  was  not  matrimony  perhaps,  but  it  was 
magnificent,"  he  obliging  resumed,  forgetting 
wholly  that  it  was  not  in  him  to  do  likewise. 

"Come,"  he  added.  From  the  start,  Leilah's 
apparel,  the  fichu  and  wrap,  had  made  him 
fancy  that  she  was  as  ready  to  go  as  he  was  to 


170  THE   MONSTER 

take  her  and  it  all  seemed  very  simple.  "Come. 
Let's  be  off.  I  have  a  cab  for  you." 

But  at  the  suggestion  which  was  a  command 
she  undid  the  lace,  loosened  the  cloak. 

"Gulian,  I  cannot." 

"Cannot!"  he  angrily  repeated.  "Why 
can't  you?  Have  you  not  heard  what  I  said. 
You  are  not  my  sister,  you  are  my  wife. 
Come." 

"Gulian!    You  do  not  know  what  you  ask!" 

"I  know  perfectly  well.  If  you  hesitate  it  is 
because  you  do  not  believe  me.  But  would  I 
urge  you  if  that  malignity  were  true?  Would 
I?" 

"Gulian,  no,  you  would  not." 

"There!  You  see!  You  have  to  believe 
me." 

"It  is  not  that." 

"It  is  the  divorce  then !  But  you  are  no  more 
married  to  that  dismal  cad  than  I  am  to  one  of 
your  maids.  Except  in  Nevada  the  decree  has 
no  effect  whatever.  But  without  bothering  to 
have  it  set  aside,  come  with  me  and  let  this  sau 
rian  get  another." 

"Gulian,  yes,  but  for  the  moment  surely  you 
can  see  that  this  is  impossible." 

"Impossible!  There  is  nothing  impossible. 
Why  do  you  say  so?  Why  do  you  make  so 
many  objections?  You  should  not  make  any. 


THE   MONSTER  171 

You  hear  a  cock-and-bull  story,  take  it  for  gos 
pel,  run  away,  get  a  divorce,  marry  a  damned 
scoundrel  and,  when  you  find  the  story  is  a  bru 
tal  lie,  stick  like  a  leech  to  him." 

"Gulian,  if  you  but  knew.  My  position  is 
horrible- 
She  wanted  to  tell  him  that  she  was  in  a 
prison  replete  with  tortures,  one  from  which 
she  was  as  eager  to  go  as  he  was  to  take  her,  yet 
one  from  which  she  could  not  escape  through 
the  open  door  of  sinning. 

He  gave  her  no  time.  Instantly  he  inter 
rupted  her. 

"I  know  your  position,  it  is  all  of  your  own 
making,  too.  By  God,  you  can  make  up  your 
mind  to  one  thing.  You'll  come,  if  I  have  to 
take  you." 

As  he  spoke  he  looked  so  brutal  that  she 
shrank. 

"Gulian,  you  will  kill  me.  I  thought  so  be 
fore.  I  know  it  now7." 

"It  is  only  what  you  deserve." 
"Gulian!    And  you  said  you  loved  me!" 
"Yes,  but  you  make  me  doubt  it." 
The  wrap  which  previously  she  had  loos 
ened  she  let  fall  on  a  chair  beside  her  and  put 
the  fichu  on  the  table. 

"Gulian,  you  must  give  me  time." 

The  words  were  simple,  plaintively  uttered, 


172  THE   MONSTER 

but  her  action  with  the  cloak  and  lace,  gave 
them  an  emphasis  which  added  to  his  irrita 
tion. 

"Nonsense,"  he  retorted.  "You  have  had 
time  enough.  Now  you  must  act."  Roughly 
he  considered  her.  "Anyone  else  might  think 
you  cared  for  that— 

"Gulian,  in  all  the  world  you  know  I  love 
but  you." 

Verplank  raised  the  cloak,  reached  for  the 
fichu,, 

"Put  these  on,  then,  and  come." 

But  Leilah,  with  a  gesture  that  was  less  of 
resistance  than  of  appeal,  motioned  them  from 
her.  The  gesture  infuriated  him.  He  threw 
the  cloak  about  her. 

"By  God !  You  shall  put  them  on.  What's 
more,  you  will  come  whether  or  not  you  want 
to." 

As  he  spoke  he  seized  her,  lifted  her. 

To  Leilah  it  seemed  as  though  she  were 
about  to  be  carried  off  violently,  like  a  prey. 
Unresistingly  she  raised  her  face  to  his. 

"Gulian,  kill  me.  It  will  be  better;  it  will 
end  it  all." 

Something,  the  words,  the  tone  in  which  they 
were  uttered,  the  helplessness  of  them  and  of 
her;  but,  more  than  anything  else  perhaps,  the 
fact  that  as  he  held  her  he  felt  her  tremble, 


THE  MONSTER  173 

stayed  him.  He  put  her  down.  His  arms  fell 
from  her. 

Catching  again  at  the  chair  she  steadied 
herself,  and  added: 

"But  if  I  am  to  live  and  love  you,  be  patient. 
Gulian,  if  you  would  stop  to  think,  to  realise, 
you  would  be  patient,  you- 


He  started  from  her.  "You  don't  mean 


At  the  question  and  its  insinuation,  hotly  she 
flushed.  Verplank  saw- but  the  flush.  The 
day  previous  she  had  told  him  that  she  had 
taken  BaroufTski  to  serve  as  a  barricade  be 
tween  them.  Since  then  he  had  cajoled  his 
imagination  with  the  idea  that  the  creature 
stood  to  her  as  husbands  do  on  the  stage,  show 
entities  who,  the  role  performed,  cease  other 
wise  to  be  husbands.  Now  the  idea  seemed  to 
him  hideously  na'if.  The  flush  refuted  it.  It 
did  more.  It  revealed  not  only  other  relations 
but  the  result  of  them.  Instantly  he  divined 
that  it  was  for  this  that  she  refused  to  go.  At 
once  within  him  waked  the  primitive,  the  ab 
original  self  that  lurks  always  and,  save  in  the 
high  crises  of  the  emotions,  sleeps  always  with 
in  us  all.  He  was  in  that  condition  in  which 
men  slay  with  bare  hands  and  afterward  con 
sider  them  marvelingly,  wondering  at  whose 
command  they  could  have  worked.  Perspira 
tion  came  to  his  forehead,  started  about  his 


174  THE   MONSTER 

nose  and  mouth.  With  the  fichu  which  he 
held  he  wiped  them,  but  on  the  table  from 
which  he  had  taken  it  was  a  layer  of  dust 
and  ashes,  the  refuse  of  the  cendrier  which 
Violet  had  overturned.  It  streaked  his 
face,  griming  him  with  a  mask  comic  and 
sinister. 

With  that  mask,  he  called  at  her. 

"Then  may  you  be  forever  damned." 

The  malediction  passed  from  him,  reached 
her,  shook  her.  She  held  to  the  chair  for  sup 
port.  Then  indignantly  she  protested. 

"Gulian!" 

He  did  not  hear.  An  idea  had  come  to  him, 
one  that  had  visited  him  in  Melbourne,  again 
in  New  York,  to  desist  from  further  effort,  to 
leave  her  where  she  was,  behind  the  barriers 
she  had  raised.  At  the  moment  he  believed  he 
desired  her  no  longer,  loved  her  no  more,  had 
never  loved  her  at  all.  Occupied  with  the  idea 
he  looked  at  this  woman  who  had  ruined  her 
life,  ruined  his  own. 

She  had  been  saying  something,  what  he  did 
not  know  nor,  self-centered  in  his  anger,  did  he 
care. 

In  his  pocket  was  a  revolver.  He  felt  of  it 
and  infuriatedly  cried: 

"You  ought  to  be  shot." 

"Gulian!" 


THE  MONSTER  175 

"You  are  on  a  par  with  the  beast  you  took 
up  with." 

"I  took  his  name,  Gulian,  his  name  alone." 

It  was  her  turn  to  be  angry.  The  flush  had 
gone,  she  was  pale  again  and  she  had  aban 
doned  the  chair's  support.  She  stood  upright, 
confronting  him  with  that  purity  which  was 
hers. 

"I  have  no  more  been  his  wife  than  I  was 
yours." 

"What!" 

This  time  he  heard.  But  her  words, 
conflicting  with  his  thoughts,  rolled  over 
together.  In  this  mental  confusion  he 
stared. 

"What!" 

"It  is  as  I  tell  you." 

"You  swear  it?" 

"Do  I  need  to?" 

Still  he  stared.  Truth  which  acts  on  us  and 
in  us  like  a  chemical  precipitate  was  disclosing 
to  him  her  whiteness  and  its  own. 

"Do  I?"  she  repeated. 

"No,  by  God,  you  don't.  I  believe  you.  I 
can't  help  myself.  It  is  in  your  eyes." 

He  paused  and  awkwardly  added: 

"Forgive  me." 

Faintly  and  sadly  she  smiled. 

"Will  you?"  he  asked. 


176  THE   MONSTER 

"Kiss  me." 

In  the  unique  syllables  of  the  words,  which 
in  a  woman's  mouth  are  so  fluid,  there  was  a 
forgiveness  so  entire  and  a  love  so  great  that 
in  passionate  contrition  he  drew  her  to  him. 
Longly  their  lips  met.  She  closed  her  eyes, 
opened  them,  disengaged  herself,  moved  back 
a  step  and  looked  at  him.  For  the  first  time 
she  noticed  the  grime  on  his  face.  It  did  not 
astonish.  It  seemed  natural  after  what  they 
had  both  been  through  and  it  occurred  to  her 
that  her  own  appearance  might  be  equally 
bizarre. 

Briefly  then,  in  this  lull  in  the  storm,  she  told 
him  what  Violet  had  suggested — the  buying 
and  divorce  of  Barouflski. 

"That  will  take  time,"  he  objected.  "The 
shortest  way  'round  is  the  quickest  way  out.  If 
you  had  not  interfered  in  the  garden— 

A  gesture  completed  the  sentence. 

"No  matter,"  he  grimly  added.  "I  haven't 
done  with  him  yet." 

In  speaking  he  had  crossed  the  room,  now 
he  recrossed  it. 

Imploringly  Leilah  approached  him. 

"Gulian,  not  that,  not  that!  Don't  fight  with 
him  again.  Don't,  I  beseech  you.  It  is  not 
alone  that  anything  of  the  kind  is  so  horrible 
but  he  is  one  of  the  trickiest  swordsmen  here. 


THE   MONSTER  177 

Think  what  that  means!  Think  what  would 
become  of  me  if — if— 

From  the  pocket  of  his  coat  Verplank  had 
taken  the  revolver.  He  looked  at  it,  looked  at 
her,  replaced  it. 

"I  am  a  trifle  interested  in  the  matter  my 
self.  Besides,  there  are  other  weapons  than  the 
foil.  If  I  can  shoot  pigeons — and  I  believe  I 
can — I  ought  to  be  able  to  land  a  buzzard." 

At  sight  of  the  revolver  Leilah  had  winced. 
Now  she  cried: 

"Give  it  to  me!" 

Verplank,  amused  at  her  simplicity,  smiled. 

"That  isn't  a  dueling  pistol." 

"But  you  never  carried  one  before." 

"In  the  States  I  did  not  need  to.  Here,  in 
Paris,  particularly  at  night,  the  streets  are  sel 
dom  sure.  I  have  this  thing  for  protection." 

"Promise  me  then— 

Verplank  looked  her  over. 

"Don't  be  a  fool." 

But  as  he  looked,  suddenly  she  started  and 
he  saw  that  she  was  trembling. 

"What  the  deuce  is  the  matter?" 

Trembling  still,  peeringly  now  she  had  turn 
ed  to  the  portieres. 

"What  is  it?"  he  repeated. 

"I  am  so  frightened." 

"Frightened?     What  at?" 


178  THE   MONSTER 

Uncertainly,  her  head  drawn  back  as  a 
deer's  is  when  surprised,  she  glanced  about 
her.  Slowly  then  her  eyes  returned  to  his. 

"I  am  so  frightened!" 

"Yes,  but  at  what?" 

She  motioned  at  the  room.  "Before  you 
came  there  seemed  to  be  something  here, 
something  around  me  and  just  now " 

"Well?" 

"I  heard  something." 

"Your  maid  probably." 

With  an  intake  of  the  breath  she  raised  a 
finger  and  for  a  moment  both  were  silent. 

"There  is  no  one,"  he  presently  told  her. 
"And  what  if  there  were!" 

At  the  idea,  he  laughed. 

The  laugh,  succeeding  the  silence,  while  in 
tended  to  reassure  her,  did  not  wholly  succeed. 
She  turned  to  him  anew  and  in  a  low  voice, 
said: 

"You  must  go.  To-morrow  come  to  Vio 
let's." 

"I   dine  there  to-night." 

"Yes,  I  know.  Tell  her  that  to-morrow,  say 
at  three,  we  will  both  be  with  her.  Then  she 
can  tell  us— 

But  Verplank  had  drawn  her  to  him.  Again 
her  eyes  closed. 

"Go,"  she  said  at  last. 


THE   MONSTER  179 

On  the  sofa  was  his  hat.  He  reached  for  it. 
While  he  did  so,  she  moved  to  the  tapestry, 
raised  it,  disclosing  the  stair  up  which  he  had 
come. 

"To-morrow,  then,"  he  said,  as  he  entered 
there. 

She  nodded  at  him.    uAt  three!" 

Dropping  the  tapestry  she  turned,  but  very 
quickly,  for  again  she  heard  or  thought  she 
heard  a  noise. 

Across  the  room  the  portieres  were  parting. 
Through  them  Barouffski  appeared. 

"I  might  have  known  it,"  she  told  herself, 
and  realising  that  he  had  been  listening,  she 
realised  also  that  the  opportunity  was  as  good 
as  another  for  making  an  offer  which  she  had 
in  mind. 

These  ideas,  instantaneous  at  sight  of  him, 
were  for  the  moment  stayed.  On  turning  she 
had  seen  but  the  man.  Now  hastening  toward 
her  was  a  creature  with  an  expression  so  ven 
omous  that  instinctively,  in  search  of  help, 
with  the  idea  of  calling  to  Verplank,  she 
turned  to  the  tapestry  again. 

Quicker  than  she,  he  caught  and  tossed  her 
spinning  on  the  sofa.  Then,  running  to  the 
open  window,  he  shouted  from  it: 

"Emmanuel!     The  dogs!" 

Leilah,  falling  backward  on  the  lounge,  was 


180  THE  MONSTER 

too  stunned  to  hear.  But  she  steadied  herself, 
recovered,  got  to  her  feet  and  making  again  for 
the  stair,  called  at  Barouffski : 

"Free  me  from  you  and  you  shall  have  half 
of  what  I  have." 

"Half!"  he  repeated.  At  once  he  was  upon 
her.  "All,"  he  cried.  "I  want  it  all,  all  of 
yours  and  all  of  his." 

As  he  spoke  he  struck  her,  shoved  her  aside, 
raised  the  tapestry  and  vanished.  For  a  second 
she  heard  him  hastening  down,  while  at  once 
from  without  came  the  barking  of  dogs,  the 
jar  of  oaths,  the  sound  of  cries. 

What  it  meant  she  did  not  know.  Her  head 
was  whirling.  The  fall,  the  blow,  the  indig 
nity  of  both  clouded  and  confused  her.  From 
without  the  uproar  mounted  and  suddenly,  the 
uproar  prompting,  into  the  turmoil  that  was 
her  mind,  a  gleam  of  understanding  shot.  At 
the  apperception  of  it  she  shrieked,  ran  to  the 
window  where  she  shrieked  again.  The  loos 
ened  dogs  had  sprung  at  Verplank,  who,  over 
whelmed'  had  fallen. 

Again  she  shrieked.  Answering  the  shriek, 
mingling  with  it,  were  snarls,  the  gnashing  of 
fangs,  the  din  of  great  hounds  ferociously 
struggling  for  blood,  tearing  vehemently  at 
flesh,  at  a  flesh,  though,  that  rebelled. 

Verplank  rose  up  between  them.     With  a 


THE   MONSTER  181 

kick  he  sent  one  of  them  sprawling.  But,  in 
the  recoil,  torn  at  by  the  other  hound,  he 
stumbled.  The  dog  was  at  his  throat.  In  pro 
tection  he  held  his  left  arm  against  it.  With 
his  right  hand  he  got  at  the  revolver  in  his 
pocket,  and,  through  the  pocket,  fired  twice 
into  the  brute.  Gnashing  still,  it  rolled  away. 

But  now,  from  the  other  side,  the  second 
hound  was  on  him.  He  saw  its  eyes,  felt  its 
breath,  felt  its  fangs.  Again  he  fired.  As  he 
did  so,  his  hand  relaxed.  He  heard  a  woman 
shrieking,  the  sound  of  hurrying  feet.  The 
wall  before  him  mounted.  His  senses  scattered 
into  night. 

Suddenly  the  garden  was  filled  with  people. 
Through  the  gate,  two  sergents  de  ville  had 
come.  These,  forms  furtive  and  uncertain  fol 
lowed.  From  the  house,  led  by  BaroufTski, 
the  footmen  ran.  Above,  from  the  window, 
still  there  issued  a  woman's  shrieks. 

BaroufTski  stopped,  and  turned.  He  looked 
up  at  the  window.  He  smiled.  With  one  hand 
he  tapped  his  breast,  with  the  other  he  pointed 
at  Verplank.  Then,  in  French,  reassuringly, 
he  called: 

"My  dear!  See!  You  may  be  tranquil.  I, 
I  am  unharmed.  It  is  the  robber." 

At  the  ignominy  of  that  flouting  jeer,  Leilah, 
impelled  by  the  impulse  to  do  something, 


182  THE  MONSTER 

though  it  were  but  to  beat  her  head  against  a 
wall,  rushed  from  the  window,  and,  strangling 
with  spasms,  fled  out  of  the  room  and  down  the 
stair,  where  horror  so  suffocatingly  enveloped 
her  that  in  it  her  brain  tipped,  and  she  fell. 


XI 


In  the  golden  half  light  of  the  Opera,  a 
chorus,  soprano  voices  on  one  side  of  the  stage 
alternating  with  contralto  on  the  other,  vapor 
ised  the  subtle  sensuality  of  the  scene. 

Violet  Silverstairs,  turning  to  her  husband, 
who  was  seated  behind  her,  remarked : 

"How  much  better  the  Italian  school  is  than 
the  French." 

Silverstairs,  ignorant  of  either,  and  indiffer 
ent  to  both,  promenaded  his  glass  about  the 
house. 

"I  wonder  why  Tempest  doesn't  show  up? 
There  is  Marie  de  Fresnoy!  I  saw  de  Fresnoy 
to-day  for  the  first  time  since  his  duel  with 
Barouffski.  What  a  ridiculous  affair  that  was ! 
I  suppose  one  of  these  days  he  will  have  an 
other  with  d'Arcy." 

Violet  turned  to  him  again. 

"Because  of  Marie?  How  absurd  you  are! 
D'Arcy  doesn't  interest  her.  No  man  could 
unless  he  drove  at  her  with  a  four-in-hand, 
and  d'Arcy  has  nothing." 

Silverstairs,  still  promenading  his  glass,  ex 
claimed: 


184  THE   MONSTER 

"There  he  is  now!" 

"Who?    D'Arcy?" 

"Yes,  with  the  Helley-Quetgens,  in  that  box 
between  the  columns.  Isn't  that  your  friend 
Leilah  whom  he  is  talking  to?  By  Jove,  it  is, 
and  BaroufTski  is  there,  also." 

Violet,  who  had  also  been  promenading  her 
glass,  put  it  down. 

"Well,  he  ought  to  be.  I  do  think  she  has 
acted  scandalously.  What  is  said  at  the  club?" 

"About  Verplank?  It  is  forgotten  already. 
BaroufTski,  you  know,  claimed  that  it  was  a 
mistake,  and  as  it  appears  that  Verplank 
agreed  with  him,  as  from  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other  any  charge  was  forthcoming,  the 
police  could  do  nothing  but  get  Verplank  back 
to  the  Ritz." 

Impatiently  Violet  unfurled  her  fan. 

"Yes,  where  she  has  been  every  day;  every 
day,  that  is,  when  she  has  not  been  with 
d'Arcy." 

The  statement  was  inexact.  Leilah  had  in 
deed  been  at  the  Ritz  but  d'Arcy  she  had  seen 
but  once,  momentarily,  by  accident — if  there 
be  such  a  thing,  in  any  event  through  one  of 
those  seeming  hazards  which,  however  for 
tuitous  at  first,  afterward  appear  to  have  been 
designed.  It  was  a  little,  though,  before  Leilah 
took  that  view  of  things.  Meanwhile,  when, 


THE  MONSTER  185 

on  recovering  from  her  swoon,  she  learned  that 
Verplank  had  also  recovered  she  realised  with 
thanksgiving  that  Destiny  which  has  its  tyran 
nies  has  its  mercies  as  well.  So  soon  then  as 
she  could  get  from  the  bed  into  which  the 
horrors  of  the  midspring  nightmare  had 
thrown  her,  she  went  to  the  Ritz  where  she 
found  Verplank  amply  attended,  abundant 
ly  bandaged,  severely  but  not  dangerously 
hurt. 

"One  of  the  brutes  nearly  chewed  my  arm 
off,"  he  told  her.  "If  the  other  omitted  to  eat 
me  entirely,  it  was  not  because  he  did  not  try. 
I  did  for  them,  though,"  he  added,  and  smiled 
as  he  said  it.  After  the  manner  of  man,  he 
took  comfort  in  the  feat. 

"But  not  for  the  worst  brute,"  Leilah  an 
swered  wishing  in  spite  of  herself,  wishing  in 
stinctively  and  even  ungrammatically  that 
some  good  fate  might. 

From  beneath  a  bandage,  Verplank 
laughed: 

"Bah!    I'll  do  for  him,  too." 

But  Leilah  did  not  hear.  She  was  speaking 
to  the  surgeon,  whom — with  a  bravery  which 
in  itself  was  a  little  defiant,  and  which  in  any 
event  might  have  been  more  discreet — there- 
•after,  daily  and  openly,  she  supplied  with  that 
which  every  surgeon  wants,  a  nurse  obedient, 


186  THE   MONSTER 

attentive,  skilful,  alert,  and  who,  in  addition 
ministers  for  love. 

Presently,  Verplank  was  able  to  be  up.  The 
surgeon  said  that  in  a  day  he  would  be  able  to 
be  out.  Verplank,  who  knew  as  much  without 
being  told,  asked  Leilah  to  go  with  him  on  the 
morrow. 

Leilah  refused.  Verplank,  for  an  invalid, 
became  then  surprisingly  demoniac.  The 
demonism  of  him  affected  her  less  than  a  con 
ception,  feminine  perhaps  but  erroneous,  of 
her  own  selfishness.  If  she  went,  she  knew  be 
forehand  that  irremissibly  she  would  be  dis 
honoured.  But  she  knew  also  that  any  sense 
of  dishonour  must,  if  it  is  to  ashame,  come 
not  from  without  but  from  within.  If  she 
went,  her  conscience,  she  thought,  would 
acquit  her.  She  thought  that  she  would  not 
feel  dishonoured,  though  she  knew  that  she 
would  be  disgraced.  To  refuse  on  that  ac 
count  seemed  to  her  selfish.  As  a  result  finally 
she  consented.  Yet  in  consenting  she  made  one 
stipulation.  Characteristic  in  itself,  it  was 
that  there  must  be  nothing  clandestine,  that 
he  must  come  for  her  in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe, 
and  that  from  there,  her  boxes  put  on  whatever 
vehicle  he  brought,  they  would  leave  for  dark 
ness  by  daylight. 

The  plan  pleased  Verplank.    He  agreed  at 


THE  MONSTER  187 

once.     He  told  her  that  he  would  come  the 
next  day. 

When  he  had,  she  added :  "To-night  I  go  to 
the  Opera;  the  Helley-Quetgens  have  asked 
me.  It  is  my  last  look  at  this  world." 

Then,  shortly,  the  arrangements  for  the  eva 
sion  completed,  she  left  the  hotel. 

Without,  her  motor  waited.  She  told  the 
groom  to  have  it  follow  her.  The  air  tempted, 
though  the  sky  was  dirty.  She  thought  of  the 
California  glare,  the  eager  glitter  of  New 
York.  She  wondered  would  they  go  back 
there.  Perhaps,  she  told  herself,  we  shall  at 
last  see  Bora-Bora. 

Her  walk  took  her  through  the  arcades  of 
the  rue  de  Rivoli  to  the  fountains  of  the  Place 
de  la  Concorde.  From  there  she  was  about  to 
enter  the  Champs  Elysees  when  she  became 
conscious  of  being  accosted. 

"Chere  madame,"  some  one  was  saying,  "I 
precipitate  myself  to  renew  the  expression  of 
my  homage." 

D'Arcy,  hat  in  hand,  was  before  her.     At 
once,  with  a  view  to  what  the  French  agree 
ably  describe  as  the  placing  of  landmarks— 
pour  poser  des  jalons — he  asked  to  be  per 
mitted  to  accompany  her. 

Leilah  smiled. 

"Not  for  the  world!" 


188  THE   MONSTER 

She  motioned  at  the  motor.  Then,  with  that 
graciousness  which  is  natural  to  the  mondaine, 
with  perhaps  the  desire  also  to  attenuate  what 
ever  there  were  of  brusqueness  in  her  reply, 
she  added,  as  she  got  in  the  car: 

"I  shall  be  at  the  Opera  with  the  Helley- 
Quetgens  to-night.  Could  you  not  look  in?" 

D'Arcy,  habituated  to  the  abruptest  victo 
ries,  accustomed  to  inflame,  with  but  a  glance, 
by  the  mere  exhibition  of  his  Olympian  good 
looks,  and,  therefore,  indifferent  when  not 
bored  by  the.  celerity  of  his  successes,  but 
piqued  by  the  tranquil  air  with  which  this 
woman  had  always  regarded  him,  thanked  her, 
assured  her  that  he  would  not  fail  to  be  there, 
and  replaced  his  hat. 

Immediately  he  raised  it  again,  straight 
from  the  head,  high  in  the  air.  Looking  with 
brilliant  eyes  from  a  brilliant  brougham, 
Violet  Silverstairs  was  dashing  by. 

Coincidentally,  unobserved  but  observant, 
Barouffski  was  also  passing  that  way. 

Leilah's  motor  flew  off  and  she  sank  back, 
wondering  at  herself,  wondering  rather  what 
influence,  malign  and  unhallowed,  could  pos 
sibly  have  prompted  her  to  ask  this  man,  whom 
she  disliked  as — in  spite  of  a  theory  to  the 
contrary — honest  women  do  dislike  a  man  of 
his  type.  But  though,  at  the  time,  she  could 


THE   MONSTER  189 

not  understand  what  impelled  her,  later  it 
seemed  to  her  that  it  must  have  been  fate. 

Barouffski  had  a  different  interpretation. 
At  the  Joyeuses  he  had  seen  Leilah  and 
d'Arcy  together.  Now,  here  they  were  again. 
The  circumstance,  of  which  the  fortuitousness 
was  unknown  to  him,  irritated  him  for  that 
very  cause.  But  he  could  imagine  and  did. 
At  once  it  was  clear  to  him  that  the  brute  was 
after  the  blue  eyes  of  her  bankbook.  The  de 
duction,  however  erroneous,  was  easy.  He  was 
viewing  the  matter,  not,  as  he  fancied,  from 
d'Arcy's  standpoint,  but  from  his  own.  In 
spite  of  which,  or  rather  precisely  on  that  ac 
count,  he  told  himself  that  d'Arcy  was  a 
damned  scoundrel.  The  humour  of  this  quite 
escaped  him.  But  that  perhaps  was  in  the 
order  of  things. 

Since  the  night  at  the  Joyeuses,  he  had  been 
measuring  himself  solely  against  Verplank. 
Twice  he  had  failed  with  him,  but  he  knew 
that  soon  they  would  be  at  each  other  again 
and  for  the  next  bout  he  had  in  view  a  coup 
which,  he  felt,  would  do  for  him  definitely. 
Meanwhile,  if  in  regard  to  Leilah  he  had 
been  led  into  certain  vivacities,  he  felt  that 
with  time,  which  is  the  great<  emollient,  her 
memory  of  these  vivacities  wounTpass.  Even 
otherwise,  the  law  was  with  him.  He  pro- 


190  THE   MONSTER 

posed  to  see  to  it  that  she  was  also — she  and 
with  her  her  purse.  The  one  menace  to  both 
had  been  Verplank.  Here,  now,  apparently, 
was  another.  Here  was  d'Arcy  with  his 
pseudo-fheidian  air,  that  famous  yet  false 
appearance  of  a  young  and  dissolute  Olympian 
which  made  imbeciles  turn  and  stare.  Raging- 
ly  Barouffski  reflected  that  Qanaillc_  though 
d'Arcy  were,  he  carried  a  great  many~guns,  al 
most  as  many  as  Verplank,  who,  worse  luck, 
had,  in  addition,  the  signal  advantage  of  being 
Leilah's  first  love — that  love  to  which  it  is 
said  one  always  returns. 

But  even  as  he  sounded  the  stupidity  of 
that  aphorism,  vaguely,  for  a  dim  second,  he 
intercepted  a  gleam  refracted  from  truth.  The 
danger  with  which  he  had  to  contend,  Ver 
plank  did  not  personify  or  d'Arcy  either,  it 
was  himself.  When  the  golden  six  was  tossed 
him,  had  he  but  then  known  how  to  secure  the 
box,  there  would  now  be  no  danger  at  all.  But 
truth,  when  it  does  not  console,  confounds. 
Barouffski  put  it  from  him.  It  was  too  ex 
asperating.  "Bah!"  he  told  himself,  "if  her 
attitude  does  not  change,  a  sojourn  in  the  soli 
tudes  of  Lithuania  may  alter  it."  Angrily  he 
nodded.  Things  more  surprising  have  oc 
curred  there. 

On  this  day  it  was  Leilah  who  surprised  him. 


THE   MONSTER  191 

Since  he  had  called  to  her  from  the  garden, 
she  had  encountered  him  only  in  the  hazards 
of  entrances  and  halls.  On  such  occasions  she 
had  passed  with  an  air  of  being  unaware  that 
there  were  anything  save  chairs  and  tables 
about. 

In  part,  it  was  this  attitude  which  he  thought 
certain  solitudes  might  change.  Oddly  enough, 
Leilah  herself  wished  it  altered.  But  to  want 
to  do  one  thing  and  to  do  something  else,  hap 
pens  to  all  of  us,  even  to  the  best.  She  des 
pised  BaroufTski  and  yet  in  despising  him  knew 
that  the  one  contemptible  thing  is  contempt. 
For  what  he  had  done,  she  felt  that  no  punish 
ment  could  be  too  severe,  yet  in  so  feeling  she 
knew  that  he  was  only  the  embodiment  of  past 
misdeeds  of  her  own.  Physically  he  had  struck 
her.  Spiritually,  it  was  her  own  hand  that  had 
dealt  the  blow.  He  had  loosed  the  dogs  on 
Verplank  and  she  had  judged  and  condemned 
him  for  it,  though  she  knew  that  not  only  she 
should  not  judge  at  all,  but  that  never  perhaps 
do  useless  events  occur.  Clearly  these  events 
were  evil,  but  were  not  those  which  she 
planned  evil  too? 

In  this  dilemma  there  was  some  slight  con 
solation  for  her  in  the  knowledge  that  it  was 
not  her  fault,  at  least  not  her  present  fault,  that 
she  had  been  born  with  a  nature  so  prob- 


192  THE   MONSTER 

lematic.  But  the  Vidya,  in  teaching  her  that 
whatever  we  suffer  is  derived  from  our  past; 
that  the  people  who  wrong  us — or  seem  to — 
are  mere  puppets  come  to  claim  karmic  debts 
which  we  owe ;  the  Vidya,  in  teaching  her  that 
taught  her  also  that  every  life  we  lead  here  is 
but  a  day  in  school.  Her  schooling,  she  felt, 
had  as  yet  been  insufficient.  No  doubt  she 
would  know  better  when  she  came  here  again. 

The  thin  gilt  hope  of  that  fortified  her  a 
little  on  this  day  when,  to  BaroufTski's  surprise, 
she  sent  for  him  and  then,  her  head  raised,  said 
distantly: 

"The  Helley-Quetgens  have  asked  us  to 
the  Opera.  I  am  going.  You  are  free  to  do 
as  you  like." 

Here,  obviously,  was  something  new.  At 
it  and  at  her  Barouffski  looked  with  shifting 
eyes.  Uncertainly  he  rubbed  his  hands. 

"But  how  then!  I  am  at  your  orders  It  is 
a  festival  to  be  where  you  are." 

But  as  he  did  nothing  without  an  object,  he 
wondered  what  hers  was.  Obviously,  there 
was  a  reason.  Yet,  what?  Could  it  be  an  olive 
branch?  He  was  too  adroit  to  ask.  Even 
otherwise,  he  lacked  the  opportunity.  Leilah 
had  gone  from  the  room. 

It  was  in  these  circumstances  that,  on  this 
night,  she  appeared  at  the  Opera  where  Violet 


THE   MONSTER  193 

was  complaining  at  having  seen  her  with 
d'Arcy. 

At  the  complaint,  Silverstairs  pulled  at  his 
moustache. 

"I  did  not  know  that  she  had  taken  up  with 
him." 

"I  don't  know  that  she  has  either.  But  she 
was  with  him  to-day  in  the  Champs  Elysees." 

uOh,  come  now!  Things  haven't  got  to  such 
a  pass  that  a  woman  can't  be  seen  with  a 
man— 

"No,  but  no  honest  woman  can  be  seen  alone 
with  d'Arcy.  Leilah  ought  to  know  better. 
She  ought  to  know  better  too  than  to  go  to  the 
Ritz.  As  she  does  not  appear  to,  I  propose 
to  tell  her." 

"Do  as  you  like,"  replied  Silverstairs  who 
would  have  said  the  same  thing  no  matter  what 
his  wife  had  suggested.  The  lady  had  not  en 
tirely  Americanised  this  Englishman  but  she 
had  at  least  made  him  realise  the  futility  of 
argument. 

"Do  as  you  like,"  he  repeated.  "There  are 
the  Orlonnas.  There  are  the  Zubaroffs." 

At  once  to  the  quick  click  of  an  oinrreuse's 
key,  the  door  opened  and  Tempest  appeared, 
a  faulard  showing  above  his  coat. 

While  he  removed  these  things  Violet  called 
at  him: 


194  THE  MONSTER 

"You're  late." 

Silverstairs  laughed.  "He  always  is.  At 
Christ  Church  he  was  known  as  the  late  Lord 
Howard." 

Tempest  moved  forward  and  sat  down  be 
tween  them. 

But  now,  to  the  volatile  sweetmeats  of  the 
score,  the  curtain  was  falling.  In  the  stalls 
there  was  a  movement.  Men  stood  up,  put 
their  hats  on,  turned  their  back  to  the  stage  or 
set  forth  for  a  chat  with  the  vestals  in  the  green 
room. 

Silverstairs  also  stood  up. 

Violet  turned  to  him : 

"I  do  wish  you  would  look  in  on  the  Helley- 
Quetgens,  and  ask  Leilah  to  come  to  luncheon 
to-morrow.  Say  I  have  a  bone  to  pick  with  her. 
That  may  fetch  her,  if  nothing  else  will." 

Tempest  ran  a  hand  through  his  vivid  hair. 

"A  bone  over  what,  if  I  may  ask?  You 
may  not  know  it,  but  I  greatly  admire  Mad 
ame  BaroufTska." 

Violet  smiled. 

"She's  a  dear.  But  I  saw  her  to-day  with 
d'Arcy,  and  I  propose  to  scold  her  for  it." 

Tempest  showed  his  teeth. 

"D'Arcy  is  not  a  man's  man,  though  he 
certainly  is  a  woman's.  Yet,  when  you  come 
to  that,  not  such  a  woman  as  Madame  BaroufT- 


THE   MONSTER  195 

ska.  What  an  odd  thing  that  was  about  her 
first  husband!" 

"You  mean  about  the  dogs?" 

"Yes.  I  never  got  the  rights  of  it.  What 
was  he  doing  there?  Is  she  living  in  the  past?" 

Violet  raised  her  opera-glass. 

"She  would  be  very  lucky  if  she  could  be; 
living  in  the  present  is  so  expensive,  don't  you 
think?" 

Again  there  was  a  quick  click.  The  door 
opened.  Silverstairs,  filling  the  entrance  with 
his  tall  stature,  reappeared. 

"Violet,"  he  began,  "the  Helley-Quetgens 
are  going  on  to  some  dance  in  the  Faubourg, 
and  Leilah  wants  the  three  of  us  to  sup  with 
her  at  Paillard's.  What  do  you  say?" 

Violet  laughed.  "I  say  it  will  be  just  my 
chance."  She  turned  to  Tempest.  "You  will 
come?" 

"Thanks,  yes.  Isn't  that  de  Fresnoy  with 
the  Zubaroffs?" 

Silverstairs,  without  sitting  down,  raised  his 
glass. 

"Yes,  and  I  was  just  saying,  this  is  the  first 
time  since  his  duel  that  I  have  seen  him.  But 
what  an  asinine  affair  that  was !  He  lunged  at 
BaroufT ski's  neck,  Barouffski  knocked  the  foil 
up  and  pricked  himself  on  the  chin  with  it. 
Then  BaroufT  ski's  surgeon  stopped  the  fight  on 


196  THE   MONSTER 

the  ground  that  it  might  interfere  with  his 
breathing.  Fancy  that!  Afterward,  in  the  ac 
count  given  to  the  press,  the  surgeon  described 
the  prick  as  an  incisive  wound  in  the  hyoidian 
region,  accompanied  by  a  notable  flow  of 
blood.  Anyone  who  did  not  know  would  have 
thought  that  Barouffski  had  been  nearly  done 
for.  But  that's  a  French  duel  for  you — a 
funeral  at  which  everybody  giggles." 

Tempest  looked  gravely  up  at  his  friend. 
"What  did  you  have  for  dinner?" 

Suspiciously,  Silverstairs  considered  him. 

"Why  do  you  ask?" 

"You  are  so  expansive  and  brilliant." 

On  the  stage,  the  drama  continued,  poign 
antly,  beatifically,  in  a  unison  of  violins  and 
voices  fEaT^vas  interrupted  at  last  by  the  usual 
stir  in  the  stalls  and  boxes,  by  the  haste  to  be 
going,  to  be  elsewhere,  and  a  defile  began;  a 
procession  of  silken  robes,  gorgeous  cloaks, 
jeweled  headgear,  black  coats,  white  ties;  a 
procession  that  presently  filled  the  subscribers' 
rotunda,  from  which,  at  sight  of  it,  grooms 
fled,  then  hurried  back,  touching  their  hats, 
eager  and  zealous. 

Between  the  columns  groups  loitered,  re 
garding  each  other  with  indulgence,  with  in 
difference,  at  times  with  a  loftiness  that  put 
isolating  zones  about  them;  and  women  as- 


THE   MONSTER  197 

sumed  that  attitude  which  women  alone  can 
assume,  that  attitude  of  being  not  only  apart 
from  the  crowd,  but  of  being  unaware  of  the 
crowd's  existence. 

In  the  centre,  Mme.  Orlonna,  an  Italian 
princess,  with  a  slight  moustache  and  an 
ancestry  that  extended  to  the  super- 
Neronian  days  of  Heliogabalus,  stood,  laugh 
ing  and  talking,  lisping  Bonthoirs  to 
everybody. 

Another  princess,  a  Russian,  Mme.  Zubar- 
ofT,  with  a  young  girl  at  her  side,  and  an  escort 
of  blond  giants,  passed,  inclining  her  head  to 
the  left,  to  the  right,  bowing  with  a  grace  me 
chanical,  but  sovereign. 

Beyond,  Leilah  appeared,  d'Arcy  on  one 
side,  Barouffski  on  the  other.  Her  face,  ordi 
narily  pale,  was  flushed,  and  her  manner, 
usually  subdued,  was  animated.  She  was 
laughing,  not  loudly,  but  noticeably. 

Violet,  accompanied  by  Tempest  and  Silver- 
stairs,  approached.  As  the  men,  after  saluting 
the  women,  greeted  each  other,  Violet  tapped 
Leilah  with  her  fan. 

"My  dear,  I  have  a  bone  to  pick  with  you." 

Leilah,  with  a  levity  that  was  rare  with  her, 
interrupted: 

"It  is  just  for  that  we  are  going  to  supper. 
How  will  you  have  it,  grilled  or  deviled?" 


198  THE   MONSTER 

"Her  ladyship's  carriage  is  at  the  door,"  a 
groom  announced,  in  English. 

Another  added,  in  French :  "The  motor  of 
madame  la  comtesse  is  advanced." 

"Yes,"  Violet  retorted.  "But  my  bone  be 
longs  to  a  different  kettle  of  fish.  Now,  you 
come  with  me."  With  a  smile,  she  turned  to 
the  others.  "We  will  go  in  the  brougham,  and 
you  take  the  motor." 

Stooping,  she  lifted  her  train,  and  the  two 
women,  accompanied  by  the  men,  followed  the 
groom  to  the  carriage. 

There,  after  seeing  them  in,  BaroufTski 
called  : 

"To  Paillard's,  Chaussee  d'Antin." 


XII 

At  the  glass  door,  which  a  chausseur  opened, 
Barouffski  stopped,  spoke  to  the  man,  gave 
him  an  order.  As  the  others,  conducted  by  a 
maitre  d'hotel,  approached  a  table,  a  fat  wo 
man  in  a  pulpit  charged  them,  before  they 
were  seated,  with  the  use  of  the  silver  and  the 
cloth. 

Beyond,  a  band  of  Bohemians,  costumed  in 
crimson,  were  loosing,  with  nervous  and  dirty 
fingers,  whirlwinds  of  notes.  The  atmosphere, 
filled  with  vibrations,  fevered  by  the  fury  of 
the  violins,  dripped  with  the  scent  of  flowers, 
with  the  bouquet  of  burgundies,  the  smell  of 
champagne,  the  odour  of  tobacco  and  food. 

At  adjacent  tables  were  demi-reps  and 
foreigners,  mondaines  and  clubmen,  a  sprinkle 
of  the  cream  of  the  venal,  the  exotic  and  the 
ultra-chic,  whom  6rtmibuses  and  waiters, 
marshaled  by  maitres  d'hotel,  served  with  the 
same  deference  and  zeal. 

For  the  Barouffski  party,  these  latter  had 
turned  two  tables  into  one,  at  which  Violet 
Silverstairs  occupied  one  end,  Leilah  the  other. 
Violet  had  Barouffski  at  her  right,  Tempest  at 


200  THE   MONSTER 

her  left,  while  Leilah  had  Silverstairs  at  her 
left  and  d'Arcy  at  her  right,  a  disposition 
natural  enough  and  otherwise  fortuitous  which 
placed  Tempest  next  to  d'Arcy,  with  Barouff- 
ski  and  Silverstairs  opposite. 

In  the  rising  storm  of  the  music,  Leilah 
turned  to  d'Arcy.  What  she  was  saying  the 
others  could  not  hear  and  all,  save  Silverstairs, 
who  was  munching  a  hors  d'oeuvre,  addressed 
themselves  to  Violet. 

Presently,  in  a  lull  of  the  gale,  Tempest 
would  have  tried  to  talk  to  this  woman  who,  in 
abandoning  her  Madonna  air  had  now  the 
merit  of  suggesting  both  the  Chimera  and  the 
Sphinx,  but  something  in  her  attitude  to 
d'Arcy  prevented.  It  was  not,  to  employ  a 
vulgarism,  that  she  was  making  eyes  at  the 
man,  but  she  was  obviously  permitting  him  to 
make  eyes  at  her. 

D'Arcy  was  seated,  his  arms  on  the  table, 
talking  in  her  face.  His  plate  was  empty.  A 
chaudfroid  had  been  served.  He  had  refused 
it.  A  mousse  had  followed.  He  had  refused 
that  also.  Over  the  glasses  at  his  side  he  had 
put  a  hand,  It  seemed  a  pose  of  his  not  to  eat 
or  to  drink  that  he  might  do  nothing  but 
talk. 

Leilah  herself  had  not  eaten.  But  as  soon 
as  champagne  was  served  she  had  drunk  of  it, 


THE   MONSTER  201 

she  had  drunk  since  and  in  her  manner,  in  the 
way  she  held  herself,  in  the  inflection  of  her 
voice,  there  had  entered  a  trace  of  the  excessive 
which  the  mondaine  avoids.  It  was  this  that 
had  deterred  Tempest.  Moreover  she  had  been 
laughing  and  that  surprised  Violet  who,  ex 
cept  a  little  earlier  in  the  rotunda,  never,  since 
Leilah  reached  Paris,  had  seen  her  laugh  be 
fore. 

Now,  her  head  drawn  back,  her  eyes  half 
closed,  she  was  gratifying  d'Arcy  with  that 
look  with  which  a  woman  can  appear  not  to 
listen  merely  but  to  drink  the  words,  the  up- 
pearance  even,  of  the  man  by  whom  she  is  ad 
dressed.  While  perhaps  flattering  to  him,  it 
was  too  marked  for  good  taste.  The  others 
noticed  it,  but,  as  is  usual  in  such  circum 
stances,  they  acted  as  though  they  had  not. 

Barouffski  conscious  of  the  impression  pro 
duced,  conscious  also  of  the  impressions  of 
the  afternoon,  leaned  forward  and  said  in 
French: 

"But,  my  dear!     You  eat  nothing!" 

Silverstairs,  tugging  at  his  moustache, 
laughed  inanely  and  addressing  himself  to 
both  Leilah  and  d'Arcy,  threw  in: 

"If  this  is  a  private  conversation— 

"What  nonsense!"    Leilah  threw  back. 

"I  was  about  to  say,"  Silverstairs  resumed, 


202  THE   MONSTER 

"that  if  it  is  a  private  conversation,  I'd  like  to 
hear  it.  If  it  is  not,  never  mind." 

BaroufTski,  still  leaning  forward,  continued: 

"I  pray  you  take  a  bit  of  the  chaudfroid." 

With  a  movement  of  impatience,  yet  other 
wise  ignoring  him  completely,  Leilah  turned 
again  to  d'Arcy. 

Barouffski  was  not  in  a  mood  to  be  ignored. 
The  sight  of  d'Arcy  in  the  afternoon,  the  man's 
unawaited  advent  at  the  Opera,  his  demeanour 
to  Leilah,  her  attitude  to  him,  the  hazards 
which  both  seemed  to  suggest;  yet  chiefly  the 
precariousness  of  his  own  position,  the  con 
stant  effort  to  appear  other  than  what  he  was, 
the  consciousness  of  danger  ever  present,  the 
obligation  to  cover  irritation  with  calm,  anxi 
ety  with  banter,  these  things  and  the  tension 
of  them,  fevered  and  enraged.  At  the  moment 
he  felt  like  a  fiend  and  looked  it.  A  moment 
only.  Reacting  at  once,  he  compressed  his 
lips,  parted  them  and  summoning  his  ambigu 
ous  smile,  called  out: 

"If  the  chaudfroid  says  nothing  to  you,  will 
you  not  try  the  mousse?" 

Leilah  was  raising  a  glass  to  her  lips.  She 
looked  over  it  at  him  and,  much  as  though  he 
were  a  servant,  said: 

"Do  me  the  favour  to  attend  to  your  own 
affairs." 


THE  MONSTER  203 

Barouff  ski's  smile  evaporated.  A  man  with 
no  sense  of  honour  and  some  sense  of  humour 
may  go  far,  provided  that  he  keep  his  temper. 
Barouffski  knew  it  but  forgot  it.  With  a  tone 
of  authority  which  in  the  rue  de  la  Pompe  he 
would  have  ordinarily  avoided,  angrily  he 
replied : 

"Then  do  me  the  favour  not  to  drink  any 
more." 

Leilah,  the  glass  at  her  lips,  paused,  looked 
over  it  again,  and  very  gently,  almost  sweetly, 
with  the  pretty  air  of  a  spoiled  child,  nodded 
at  him. 

"Only  one  sip." 

She  touched  the  glass  with  her  lips,  for  a 
moment  held  it  there,  then,  offering  it  to 
d'Arcy,  rather  languorously  she  said: 

"Beau  sire,  will  you  drink  the  rest?" 

Instantly  Violet  intervened.  "Leilah!  Be 
have  yourself!" 

"But  with  delight,"  d'Arcy  was  saying. 

From  Leilah's  extended  hand  he  took  the 
glass,  raised  it,  drained  it,  put  it  down,  looked 
at  her. 

Barouffski  was  looking  at  him.  Quietly, 
without  emphasis,  he  asked: 

"Will  you  drink  mine,  too?" 

Half  rising  as  he  spoke,  he  had  taken  his 
own  glass  in  his  hand  and  with  a  gesture 


204  THE  MONSTER 

which,  even  as  he  made  it,  he  regretted,  a  ges 
ture  incited  by  vibrations  which  he  was  unable 
to  resist,  he  flung  the  contents  at  him. 

"BaroufTski!"  Violet  indignantly  ex 
claimed. 

She  glanced  about  her.  At  her  elbow  an 
omnibus,  a  lad  undersized  but  stout,  stood 
gaping.  Beyond,  the  Bohemians  were  storm 
ing.  At  the  adjacent  table  were  demi-reps 
and  South  Americans.  They  had  not  noticed. 
At  this  table,  Tempest,  his  teeth  visible,  was 
contemplating  his  host.  Silverstairs,  tugging 
at  his  moustache,  was  considering  Leilah.  The 
latter  was  looking — and  with  what  a  look!— 
at  BaroufTski.  But  no  one  spoke.  A  spell 
seemed  to  have  settled  on  all.  With  the  idea 
of  doing  or  of  saying  something  that  would 
break  it,  Violet  turned  to  d'Arcy. 

Delicately,  with  a  coroneted  handkerchief, 
he  had  wiped  his  face  and  was  then  mopping 
at  his  shirt. 

Interrupting  the  operation,  he  looked  up 
and  laughed.  "Oh,  la,  la!  The  dangers  that 
may  be  avoided  in  remaining  at  home!  These 
are  the  accidents  of  restaurant  life!" 

He  laughed  again.  The  laugh  humanised 
and  deformed  the  Pheidian  beauty  of  his  face. 
He  bowed  to  Leilah,  bowed  to  Violet  and  col 
lectively  added : 


THE  MONSTER  205 

"Mesdames,  I  have  ceased  to  be  present 
able.  A  thousand  pardons.  You  will  permit 
me?" 

In  a  moment,  after  another  bow,  circular 
this  time,  a  bow  which  while  managing  to 
omit  Barouffski,  included  the  rest  of  the  table, 
he  had  gone. 

"He  looks  like  Keats,"  said  Silverstairs  ani 
mated  by  an  unconscious  desire  to  second  his 
wife  and  break  the  spell  which  still  persisted. 
Ordinarily  he  would  have  taken  her  and  gone. 
The  assault  had  been  as  much  of  an  affront  to 
her  as  it  had  been  to  d'Arcy.  But  to  have  left 
the  table  would  have  been  a  reproof  to  Leilah, 
whom,  in  the  ridiculous  way  in  which  society 
is  organized,  he  was  unable  to  disassociate 
from  Barouffski. 

"Keats!"  Tempest,  coming  to  his  aid,  ex 
claimed.  "I'll  lay  a  guinea  you  would  not 
know  his  picture  if  you  saw  it." 

Amiably  Silverstairs  tugged  at  his  mous 
tache.  "Well,  perhaps  not.  What  I  meant 
was  that  he  looks  like  a  poet." 

"I  don't  agree  with  you,"  Tempest  retorted. 
"To  begin  with,  there  are  not  any.  Besides, 
latterly  there  have  been  but  two — Hugo,  who 
looked  like  a  green-grocer,  and  Swinburne 
who  looked  like  a  bookseller's  assistant.  More 
over  I  hate  poets,  though,  as  someone  said 


206  THE  MONSTER 

somewhere,  an  inability  to  write  in  verse  can 
hardly  be  regarded  as  constituting  a  special 
talent.  No,  d'Arcy  does  not  look  like  a  poet, 
he  looks  like  a  poet's  creation." 

"Excuse  me,"  Silverstairs  with  affected 
meekness  threw  out.  "And  thanks  for  the  lec 
ture." 

Tempest  nodded.  "You're  entirely  wel 
come." 

He  turned  to  Violet.  She  was  looking  at 
Leilah  who  was  looking  at  BaroufTski.  The 
latter  was  looking  at  the  fingers  of  his  right 
hand  against  which  his  thumb  passed  and  re- 
passed  mechanically.  But  now,  aroused  from 
his  reflections  by  the  entire  cessation  of  talk, 
he  glanced  about  him,  summoned  a  waiter, 
settled  the  score.  The  Bohemians  who  mo 
mentarily  had  been  silent,  abruptly  striped 
the  air  with  spangles  from  their  bows. 

Violet  and  Leilah  stood  up,  resumed  their 
wraps,  passed  on.  The  men,  buttoning  their 
coats,  putting  their  gloves  on,  followed. 

At  the  door  were  the  eager  grooms.  As  one 
of  them  touched  his  hat  to  Leilah,  Violet 
turned  to  her. 

"My  dear,  I  cannot  thank  you  for  a  very 
pleasant  evening.  But  I  will  look  in  on  you 
to-morrow.  That  bone  isn't  picked  and  what's 
more,  now  I've  got  sauce  for  it." 


THE   MONSTER  207 

With  Silverstairs  and  Tempest  at  her  heels, 
she  went  to  her  brougham.  Leilah  entered  the 
motor. 

At  the  door  of  the  latter  Barouffski  stood. 
He  raised  his  hat.  Leilah  looked  at  him.  She 
had  had,  she  thought,  her  last  glimpse  of  the 
world  and  this  was  her  last  glimpse  of  him. 
The  sight  was  so  repugnant  that  she  almost 
sickened  and  the  nausea  which  she  felt,  her 
face  expressed. 

Barouffski  tried  to  smile  but  the  uncon 
cealed  candour  of  her  abhorrence  made  his 
lips  twitch.  Now,  though,  the  motor  was 
starting.  As  it  whirred  away,  he  drew  his 
coat  closely  about  him,  turned  up  the  collar 
and  stuck  his  hands  deep  in  the  pockets. 
There  had  come  to  him  that  odd  sensation 
which  homely  fancy  attributes  to  someone 
walking  on  your  grave. 


XIII 

The  next  day,  Violet,  entering  the  brilliant 
room,  gazed  first  about  it  and  then  at  Leilah. 

"Aurelia  is  not  here?  That's  odd.  She  is 
simply  horrid  but  so  reliable.  You  don't 
mind  my  having  told  her  to  meet  me?" 

Leilah  sighed.  "I  am  getting  so  that  soon 
I  shan't  mind  anything." 

Violet,  seating  herself,  nodded  vivaciously. 

"I  call  that  very  fine.  But  there  is  some 
thing  finer.  Never  mind  anybody.  Silver- 
stairs  now—  '  and  as  the  lady  spoke  she 
summoned  a  smile  feline  and  Cheshire — "he 
fancied  I  would  be  a  good,  obedient  little  wife. 
Instead  of  which  he  is  a  good,  obedient  big 
husband."  In  entire  self-appreciation  she  ex 
hibited  the  tip  of  her  tongue  and  moistened 
her  lips  with  it.  "It  takes  us,  doesn't  it?  But 
forgive  me,  dear,  us  is  perhaps  an  exaggera 
tion.  I  am  afraid  you  have  made  rather  a 
mess  of  things.  Now  what  are  you  going 
to  do?" 

Without  replying,  Leilah  looked  away. 
During  the  night  she  had  barely  slept.  The 
incident  in  the  restaurant,  events  that  had  pre- 


210  THE  MONSTER 

ceded  it,  anterior  complications,  subsequent 
developments,  these  things,  like  the  Bohemians 
at  Paillard's,  had  stormed  at  her,  attacked  her 
fibres,  wrenched  her  nerves,  striating  the  dark 
ness  of  her  room  with  variations  on  the  tragedy 
of  her  life. 

In  what  manner  the  affair  in  the  restaurant 
had  terminated,  she  had  no  one  to  inform  her 
but  she  could  readily  fancy  that  shortly  d'Arcy 
and  Barouffski  would  go  somewhere  and  fight, 
or  pretend  to,  and  then  return,  none  the  worse 
and  none  the  better,  but  with  honour  satisfied 
and  their  names  in  print. 

The  entire  episode  was  shameful.  But 
though  provoked  by  her  she  had  not  premedi 
tated  it.  In  offering  d'Arcy  her  glass,  she  had 
wished  solely  to  display  her  independence. 
Subsequently,  in  going  over  the  matter,  she 
had  realised  that  the  wish,  while  human,  had 
not  been  nice.  Then,  a  bit  conscience-stricken, 
she  had  wondered  how  she  could  have  be 
haved  as  she  had. 

"I  did  it  without  thinking,"  was  her  im 
mediate  excuse.  But  that,  she  told  herself  was 
untrue.  Ever  since  the  duel  and  the  blow  and 
the  nightmare  that  followed,  some  such  wish 
had  been  fermenting  in  her.  The  wish,  rea 
sonable  in  itself,  though  in  her  case  unrea 
soned,  persisted,  as  in  certain  natures  a  wish 


THE  MONSTER  211 

will  persist,  until,  after  the  fashion  of  a  con 
stantly  recurring  idea,  the  individual  becomes 
so  saturated  with  it  that,  given  the  impulse, 
given  less  than  that,  given  a  vibration,  some 
effect,  perhaps  wholly  atmospheric,  and  sud 
denly  the  idea  has  solidified  into  an  act,  an 
act  noble,  degrading  or  merely  banal,  ac 
cording  to  the  influence  that  produced  it,  but 
an  act  which,  whatever  its  character,  has  then 
become  inevitable,  even  involuntary,  its  con 
stant  mental  recurrence  having  exhausted  the 
ability  to  choose  between  it  and  another. 

Leilah  had  thought  of  this  and,  in  search  of 
comfort,  had  groped  for  another  excuse.  As 
an  Oriental  will  say:  "My  body  is  tired." 
"My  body  is  hungry,"  so  Leilah  decided:  "It 
was  my  nerves  that  did  it." 

But  the  sophistry  displeased  her.  She 
knew  that  she  had  judged  and  condemned  Ba- 
rouffski  and  she  knew  also  that  she  had  no 
right  to  do  either.  The  man  was  clearly  a 
cad,  a  scoundrel  and  a  brute,  yet  even  though 
he  were  these  things  and  worse  and  more  be 
sides,  he  so  became  in  her  eyes  merely  be 
cause  her  consciousness  had  evolved  to  a  point 
higher  than  his  own.  Seen  from  a  different 
angle,  she  might  appear  only  a  shade  less 
reprehensible,  and  it  might  be,  even  equally 
vile.  Moreover,  according  to  the  Upanishads, 


212  THE  MONSTER 

this  consciousness  of  hers  and  that  conscious 
ness  of  his  were  fundamentally  one.  Both  had 
come  from  the  same  source.  To  that  source 
both  would  ultimately  return.  They  would 
be  fused  there,  as  originally  there  they  had 
been  merged. 

At  the  apperception  of  that,  the  curious 
lines  which  occur  in  the  Book  of  Dzyan  sug 
gested  themselves : 

"Said  the  Flame  to  the  Spark:  'I  have 
clothed  myself  in  thee,  thou  art  my  image,  my 
body,  until  that  day  when  thou  shalt  rebecome 
myself  and  others,  thyself  and  me!  } 

In  the  penetrating  beauty  of  the  allegory 
Leilah  told  herself  that  she,  Barouffski,  Ver- 
plank,  the  Silverstairs,  the  Helley-Quetgens, 
everybody  whom  she  knew,  everyone  whom 
she  did  not  know,  all  the  fillers  of  space,  were 
sparks  of  one  Flame,  the  Flame  from  which 
they  had  been  formerly  emitted  and  into 
which  they  would  finally  return.  That,  she 
felt  she  must  believe,  if  she  were  to  believe 
anything.  But  she  felt  too  that  though  she 
did  believe  it,  she  believed  also  that  for  the 
present  there  were  sparks  better  parted  than 
united,  as  there  were  also  others  better  united 
than  apart. 

On  the  table  before  her  was  a  treatise  on  the 
Paramitas — which  are  The  Blessed  Things. 


THE  MONSTER  213 

She  looked  at  it,  knowing  that  what  she  had 
done  was  wrong  and  what  she  was  about  to  do 
was  evil.  But  she  felt  also  that  she  could  not 
help  herself.  Whatever  the  penalty,  it  was 
impossible  for  her  to  live  with  BaroufTski. 
Whatever  the  punishment,  it  was  impossible 
for  her  not  to  live  with  Verplank.  At  the  mo 
ment  it  seemed  to  her  as  though  the  high 
fates  had  set  her  in  a  circle  from  which  she 
could  not  escape  except  by  the  door  of  death 
or  that  of  further  sinning.  At  this  idea  she 
wondered  about  BaroufTski  as,  after  Ver- 
plank's  eruption  at  the  Joyeuses,  she  had 
wondered  about  him.  She  wondered  whether 
in  some  former  existence  she  had  injured  Ba 
roufTski  and  whether  it  were  for  that  reason 
that  she  had  been  led  into  giving  him  the 
power  to  injure  her  now.  It  might  be  so,  she 
told  herself,  in  which  case  she  ought  to  bear  it. 
But  how  could  she  know  that  it  was  so?  Yet 
even  though  it  were  and  the  fact  were  made 
clear  to  her,  even  then,  even  too  if  the  cer 
tainty  of  a  punishment  more  poignant  than 
any  were  shaken  in  her  eyes,  still  she  could  not 
bear  it. 

"But  I  ought  to,"  she  found  herself  say 
ing. 

These  reflections  Violet's  advent  had  inter 
rupted. 


214  THE  MONSTER 

"What  are  you  going  to  do?"  the  lady  was 
asking. 

Leilah,  unfit  at  the  moment  for  battle,  felt 
unable  to  tell.  She  looked  away. 

"Nothing,  I  suppose." 

Violet,  cocking  a  belligerent  eye,  threw  out: 

"You  carry  moderation  to  excess." 

Leilah  looked  up.  "What  would  you  have 
me  do?" 

"Divorce  Barouffski." 

"Because  he  threw  champagne  about?  I 
hardly  fancy  I  could  get  a  divorce  for  that." 

Militantly  Violet  whipped  off  a  glove. 
"Frankly  that  creature  is  a  criminal.  Never, 
in  all  my  life,  have  I  seen  such  an  exhibition 
of  bad  taste.  But  then,  as  they  say  here,  bad 
taste  leads  to  crime — to  such  vulgar  forms  of 
it  at  that." 

"Even  so,  I  don't  see  how  it  helps  me." 

"But  he  struck  you,"  Violet,  more  bellicose 
than  ever,  exclaimed.  "You  told  me  so. 
What  more  would  you  have.  But  aren't  you 
difficile  to-day!"  Suspiciously  she  considered 
her  friend.  "YouVe  got  something  up  your 
sleeve." 

"If  I  have,"  Leilah,  in  an  effort  to  parry  the 
thrust,  replied,  "at  least  it  is  not  witnesses." 

Cogently  Violet  nodded.  "Come  to  me 
is  the  mother-in-law  of  inven- 


THE   MONSTER  215 

tion.  If  you  haven't  any  witnesses,  I'll  find 
something  else.  I  make  a  specialty  of  finding 
things  before  they  are  lost." 

This  programme  hardly  suited  Leilah's 
book.  Again  she  parried.  "Last  night — and 
what  a  night! — I  dreamed  I  was  feasting  with 
the  dead.  It  was  so  peaceful.  It  is  that  that  I 
want.  It  is  peace  the  very  fibres  of  my  being 


crave." 


Here  were  heights — or  depths — where  Vio 
let  could  not  follow.  With  a  smile  she  tacked. 

"Before  you  dreamed  your  dream  I  noticed 
that  you  wore  a  very  ducky  frock." 

"It  is  stained.  So  am  I.  The  champagne 
Barouffski  threw  stained  me  within  and  with 


out." 


Here  were  other  heights.  Readily  Violet 
skirted  them. 

"I  believe  I  got  a  drop  or  two  myself.  But 
then  I  don't  mind.  It  is  true  I  am  not  a 
theosjopjiist." 

At  this,  in  indignation  at  herself,  Leilah  pro 
tested. 

"Theosophy  is  primarily  a  school  of  good 
manners.  In  giving  d'Arcy  my  glass,  mine 
were  detestable." 

Now  they  were  on  surer  ground.  Wickedly 
Violet  winked. 

"Nobody  has   any  manners   any  more  or, 


216  THE  MONSTER 

when  they  do,  they  have  them  in  plenty  and 
all  of  them  bad." 

"If  I  have  an  excuse,"  Leilah  continued,  "it 
is  that  Gulian  drove  me  nearly  demented." 

Now,  Violet  felt,  they  were  getting  at  it. 
Mentally  she  girded  herself  and  with  an  en 
gaging  appearance  of  sympathy,  exclaimed: 

"A  man  never  does  that  unless  he  loves  a 
woman  to  distraction." 

The  sympathy,  however  feigned,  did  its 
work.  After  all,  Leilah  reflected,  why  should 
she  not  tell  what  she  was  about  to  do?  On 
the  impulse  she  turned. 

"Violet,  I  offered  Barouffski  half  my  for 
tune  to  free  me.  His  reply  was  a  blow.  Apart 
from  that  I  have  no  grounds  for  a  divorce, 
none  at  least  which  I  can  show.  Previously 
there  was  something  between  Gulian  and  me. 
It  has  gone.  He  cares  for  me  still  and  I  care 
for  him.  Shortly  he  is  to  be  here.  For  a  long 
time  I  hesitated.  But  after  last  night — after 
the  nights  and  days  that  preceded  it! — it  does 
not  seem  to  me  that  I  need  hesitate  any  more." 

Pausing,  she  drew  breath.  "Violet,  when 
he  comes  I  am  to  go  with  him.  Is  there  a 
reason  why  I  should  not?" 

Violet,  who  had  long  suspected  as  much, 
now  at  last  had  nailed  it.  Cautiously  she 
buckled  to. 


THE  MONSTER  217 

"No.  Not  one.  On  the  contrary.  There 
is  every  reason  why  you  should.  Every  rea 
son.  Particularly  as  to  greet  you  there  will  be 
the  disdainful  eyes,  the  lifted  skirts,  the 
averted  heads,  every  one  of  the  very  slight  and 
very  fiendish  tortures  that  are  visited  on  the 
woman  who  has  gone  and  done  it." 

For  a  second  she  too  paused,  then  with  a  war 
whoop  added: 

"But  you  can't  do  anything  of  the  kind.  I 
won't  let  you." 

"Would  you  turn  from  me  also?" 

"I!  Merciful  fathers!  But  I  am  not  the 
world.  No  matter  what  is  done  in  private, 
the  world  does  not  care.  The  world  is  very 
well  bred.  It  never  sees  anything  that  was  not 
intended  for  it.  But  on  the  open  scandal  of 
scandalous  conduct  instantly  it  turns  its  well 
bred  back.  It  will  turn  it  on  you." 

Indifferently  Leilah  assented.  She  had  ex 
amined  this  phase  of  the  matter.  It  had  not 
seemed  very  important. 

"No  doubt,"  she  replied.  "Yet  then  destiny 
seldom  closes  a  door  without  opening  another. 
I  told  you  of  my  dream.  It  was  a  dream  of 
peace.  Here  there  can  be  none.  It  may  be 
my  karma  perhaps.  But  this,"  she  continued, 
motioning  at  the  brilliant  room,  "this  is  my 
prison." 


218  THE  MONSTER 

She  hesitated  and  a  bit  lamely  concluded : 

"It  is  horrible  to  be  in  such  a  place." 

"And  worse  to  be  nowhere  at  all,"  Violet 
shot  at  her.  In  firing  she  had  sat  up.  Now, 
lolling  back  on  the  cushions,  she  enigmatically 
resumed :  "You  may  be  right  though.  I  dare 
say  it  is  dreadful  to  be  in  prison.  I  daresay  it 
is  even  worse  than  you  think." 

Enigmatic  still,  she  smiled.  With  another 
shot,  with  two  at  most,  Leilah,  she  told  her 
self,  would  be  routed. 

"It  is  as  though  I  were  in  a  vortex,"  the 
latter  was  saying.  "It  is  as  though  I  were 
being  torn  from  places  where  I  do  not  wish 
to  be  to  others  I  may  not  like.  But  can  one 
argue  with  a  vortex?  It  is  idle  even  to  strug 
gle.  Whether  you  will  or  you  won't,  you  have 
to  let  yourself  go." 

Lightly,  in  her  most  worldly  manner,  Violet 
laughed. 

"Never  in  the  world!  A  woman  should 
never  let  herself  go — except  in  an  aeroplane. 
At  a  pinch  a  four-in-hand  might  do,  but— 

At  the  moment  the  lady  was  thoroughly  en 
veine  and,  sure  of  victory,  might  have  ban 
tered  on,  but  this,  Aurelia,  ushered  by  Parker, 
prevented. 

Sharply  Violet  threw  at  her :  "Where  have 
you  been?" 


THE  MONSTER  219 

Ignoring  Violet,  Aurelia  nodded  at  Leilah. 

"I  was  here  the  other  day,  did  they  tell 
you?" 

She  turned  and  with  blithe  impertinence 
looked  her  sister  up  and  down. 

"Don't  be  so  ordinary  as  to  ask  a  girl 
where  she  has  been.  If  you  are  inquisitive, 
ask  where  she  is  going,  and,  if  you 
ask  me,  I'll  tell  you.  I  am  going  to 
become— 

"Yes,  yes."  Violet  impatiently  interrupted. 
"We've  heard  all  that.  You're  going  to  be 
come  a  star.  I  know  what  kind  too — a  fallen 
star." 

A  fresher  smile  bubbled  about  Aurelia's 
delicious  mouth. 

"It  pleases  your  ladyship  to  jest.  I  am  to 
become  the  Princess  Farnese!" 

"Merciful  heavens !"  Violet  exclaimed,  turn 
ing  as  she  spoke  to  Leilah.  "She'll  go  in  to 
dinner  before  me!" 

But  Leilah  who,  after  a  word  of  greeting  to 
Aurelia,  had,  from  the  table  before  her,  taken 
and  reopened  the  Paramitas,  perhaps  did  not 
hear. 

Violet  turned  again  to  her  sister.  "When 
did  he  propose?" 

With  an  air  of  amused  contempt,  again 
Aurelia  looked  her  up  and  down. 


220  THE  MONSTER 

"How  antiquated  you  are !  Don't  you  know 
that  all  that  sort  of  thing  has  gone  out?" 

"Do  you  mean  that  he  didn't  propose?" 

"Of  course  not.    I  proposed  to  him." 

"What?" 

"He  was  so  coy  about  it,  too,"  Aurelia,  quite 
as  though  she  were  eating  sweetmeats,  re 
sumed.  "He  asked  me  all  about  my  finances, 
what  settlements  I  would  make  and  whether 
I  would  object  if  he  kept  a  separate  establish 
ment.  You  can't  really  fancy  how  coy  he  was. 
He  quite  blushed  and  stammered,  the  poor 
thing." 

"I  should  think  he  might." 

"Yes,  indeed.  He  asked  me  if  I  had  spoken 
to  his  mamma,  and  I  told  him  that  while  it 
was  perhaps  incorrect  of  me  to  speak  to  him 
in  the  first  instance,  yet  that  there  could  be 
no  real  love  without  a  mutual  misunderstand 
ing,  and  now  that  we  had  one  I  would  make 
a  formal  demand  of  the  old  lady  to-day." 

Aurelia,  executing  a  little  pas,  added:  "I 
have  just  seen  her." 

"Well?" 

"She  said:  'And  so  you  want  my  little  boy 
for  your  husband.'  Partly  that  I  told  her, 
but  partly  also  I  want  you  for  mother-in-law. 
You  should  have  seen  her  lick  her  chops  over 
that.  Then  she  asked  me  about  my  affections. 


THE  MONSTER  221 

I  told  her  they  were  just  like  the  fashions. 
They  came  and  went." 

"She  must  have  been  delighted." 

"She  hugged  me.  Then,  of  course,  I  asked 
about  him.  She  told  me  that  he  has  just  been 
named  as  co-respondent  in  the  Kincardine  di 
vorce  suit,  and  I  said  that  that  was  perfectly 
satisfactory." 

"What!" 

"Perfectly  satisfactory.  It  appears  that 
the  poor  boy  can't  remember  whether  the 
charge  is  true  or  false  and  that  I  think  is  so 
dear  of  him." 

Violet,  rising,  extended  her  arms.  "Aure- 
lia,  I  have  been  wrong,  I  have  misjudged  you. 
Come  to  me." 

But  Aurelia,  moving  back,  waved  her 
away.  "You'll  only  muss  me.  Now  I  must 
run.  I  must  break  the  news  to  Parsnips.  Will 
you  come,  Vi?" 

"In  a  moment."  Violet  answered.  "Wait 
for  me  in  the  brougham.  There  is  something 
I  want  to  say  to  Leilah." 

Endearingly  the  ingenue  smiled.  "Some 
thing  I  ought  not  to  hear,  I  suppose."  In 
speaking  she  made  for  the  door.  "The  amount 
of  things  I  ought  not  to  hear  and  do  hear  is 
simply  amazing." 

As  the  portieres  fell  on  her  gracile  back, 


222  THE  MONSTER 

Violet,  with  a  gesture  which,  for  so  warlike  a 
lady,  resembled  defeat,  reseating  herself,  ex 
claimed: 

"Frankly,  she  is  impossible." 

At  once  though,  buckling  anew  for  the  fray, 
she  aimed  at  Leilah  and  fired. 

"So  are  you." 

Leilah,  who  had  been  considering  the  Para- 
mitas,  started  at  the  attack  which  instantly  was 
followed  up  by  another. 

"Do  you  know  anything  about  the  code 
here,  the  law  code,  I  mean.  Do  you?" 

Leilah,  a  bit  bewildered,  shook  her  head. 
"No,  that  is,  very  little." 

Violet's  eyes  fairly  snapped.  "I  congratu 
late  you.  A  little  is  sometimes  a  great  deal. 
I  also  know  a  little  and  that  little  is,  well,  im 
mense,  so  enormous  even  that  because  of  it 
I  am  in  a  position  to  tell  you  that  if  you  go  with 
Verplank,  Barouffski  can,  if  he  catches  you, 
have  you  jailed." 

Gravely,  with  curious  calm,  Leilah  looked  at 
her. 

Annoyed  that  the  shot  had  fallen  short,  Vio 
let  aimed  again. 

"Didn't  you  hear  me?  I  said  jailed. 
J-a-i-1-e-d!  Now  I  may  add  for  two  years. 
That  is  what  I  meant  when  you  spoke  of  your 
prison.  I  agreed  with  you  that  it  must  be 


THE  MONSTER  223 

dreadful  to  be  in  one.     I  said  I  daresay  it  is 
even  worse  than  you  think." 

Leilah  half  raised  a  hand.    "But— 
Unheedingly  Violet  continued.     "Now,  as 
for  Verplank,  if  Barouffski  were  to  surprise 
him  here  with  you  he  could  kill  you  both,  yes, 
and  be  acquitted.     But  you — I  have  told  you 
what  he  can  do.    Moreover,  if  he  so  much  as 
suspects  you,  he  can  call  the  police.     But  ex 
cuse  me.    You  were  saying?" 
"Nothing  of  any  moment." 
But  Violet  persisted.    "What  was  it?" 
"Merely  that  during  the  Terror  a  woman 
went  to  the  guillotine  smelling  a  rose." 

At  this  flank  movement  Violet  winced,  but 
she  rallied. 

"Yes  and  rehearsed  the  act  beforehand. 
They  all  did.  The  great  ladies  of  the  period 
rehearsed  for  the  guillotine  that  they  might 
die,  as  they  had  lived,  with  grace.  Those  were 
the  good  old  days.  These  are  the  bad  new  ones. 
Anything  of  the  kind  would  be  ridiculous 


now." 


To  this,  gravely  as  before,  Leilah  assented. 
"No  doubt.  But  aren't  you  rather  rambling 
about  the  grounds?  It  seems  to  me  that  you 
also  have  something  up  your  sleeve." 

Violet  rose  to  the  challenge.  "Something! 
I  have  the  entire  pharmacopoeia.  ^In  it  is  a 


224  THE   MONSTER 

remedy  heroic  but  sovereign.  If  you'll  take 
it,  it  may  maim  but  it  will  cure." 

Leilah,  well  entrenched,  braved  her.  "I  may 
not  need  it." 

With  a  rush,  then,  the  attack  began. 

"That's  because  you  don't  know.  You  think 
you  are  sane  and  sound.  Don't  you  now?  Yes, 
and  you  are  neither.  You  have  a  high  tem 
perature  complicated  with  nausea.  The  tem 
perature  is  due  to  exposure,  the  nausea  to  in 
digestion.  You  have  been  exposed  to  Ver- 
plank  and  you  have  supped  on  Barouffski. 
You  fancy  you  can't  be  rid  of  the  incubus. 
That  is  an  hallucination  which  the  fever 
has  caused.  You  can  be  rid  of  it.  You  can 
throw  it  up.  I  have  an^eme_tic  that  will  do 
the  trick.  It  may  not  be  tasty  but  I'll  war 
rant  it  will  make  him  gag  far  more  than 
you." 

At  the  ferocity  of  the  assault,  Leilah  quailed. 
"Really,  Violet,  your  language— 

But  the  lady  was  not  be  denied.  "Aha!  You 
want  me  to  be  butter-fingered,  don't  you?  Not 
a  bit  of  it.  You  shall  have  the  dose  whether 
you  like  it  or  not  and  here  it  is  for  you.  You 
called  this  place  a  prison.  Now  who  runs  it? 
You  do.  And  on  what?  Your  money.  Sup 
posing  you  hadn't  any?  Would  Barouffski 
supply  it?  He  would  pack  in  a  jiffy.  Couldn't 


THE  MONSTER  225 

you  then  sue  for  divorce?  Of  course  you 
could.  Then  there  is  the  emetic.  Verplank 
has  enough  for  you  both,  enough  for  an  army. 
All  you  have  to  do  is  to  hold  your  nose,  open 
your  mouth,  give  your  money  away  and  vomit 
BaroufTski.  Will  you?" 

It  was  Violet's  last  shot.  With  it  she  had 
expected  to  bowl  Leilah  completely  over. 
Anxiously  she  looked  to  see  the  result. 

"Will  you?"  she  repeated. 

With  manifest  exaltation  Leilah  answered: 
"I  had  thought  of  it." 

Surprisedly  Violet  stared,  wondering  could 
all  her  ammunition  have  gone  for  nothing, 
wondering  too  at  the  almost  rapt  expression 
that  had  come  into  Leilah's  face. 

"What?" 

"Yes,  Violet,  I  had  thought  of  it — and  of 
other  things  also.  While  Aurelia  was  here,  I 
was  reading  a  little  book.  It  told  me  what  I 
once  knew  and  had  since  forgotten.  It  told 
me  that  if  we  have  ideals  we  should  live  for 
them,  that  it  is  only  by  living  for  them  and 
suffering  for  them  that  we  can  lift  ourselves 
above  the  brutes.  Violet,  it  was  sinful  of  me 
to  think  of  going  with  Gulian." 

Dispassionately  the  now  mollified  lady 
toned  that  phrase. 

"It  was  not  perhaps  quite  nice." 


226  THE  MONSTER 

"But  I  had  not  seen,"  Leilah  continued. 
"No,  not  that,"  she  interrupted  herself  to  ex 
plain,  "I  had  forgotten  that  this  prison,  all  I 
have  endured,  all  I  shall  endure,  these  are  my 
debts  to  the  Lords  of  Karma." 

But  that  was  a  bit  too  strong.  Violet 
laughed. 

"You  mean  the  Lords  of  Gammon." 

"I  mean,"  Leilah,  with  heightening  fervour, 
replied,  "that  I  have  looked  upon  my  prison 
as  a  cross.  It  is  not  a  cross,  it  is  a  boon — one 
of  which  I  have  not  been  worthy.  For  I  for 
got  that  any  sorrow  should  be  welcomed.  I 
forgot  that  it  has  been  sent  to  make  us  nobler 
than  we  are.  But  my  sorrows  I  have  not  wel 
comed.  I  have  rebelled  against  them.  I  shall 
rebel  no  more.  They  were  my  masters.  They 
shall  be  my  servants  now." 

At  these  fine  sentiments  Violet  sniffed. 

"If  that  is  theosophy  I  will  believe  in  it 
when  I  am  old,  fat  and  a  German.  But  I  am 
glad  it  enabled  you  to  reach  a  decision.  Other 
wise " 

But  what  the  lady  may  have  intended  to 
say  was  never  expressed  or  at  least  not  then. 
Through  the  yellow  portieres,  the  delicate  oval 
of  Aurelia's  face  appeared. 

"Aren't  you  ever  coming?"  she  called. 
"What  have  you  two  been  talking  about?" 


THE   MONSTER  227 

As  the  ingenue  spoke,  she  entered,  strolled 
to  the  mirror,  considered  herself. 

"We  have  been  discussing  your  engage 
ment,"  Violet,  in  a  very  matter  of  fact  way,  re 
plied. 

Aurelia  adjusted  her  hat,  patted  her  hair, 
and  addressed  the  mirror. 

"I  fancied  it  must  be  something  important. 
Did  I  tell  you  what  happened  before  I  took 
Farnese?" 

Violet  yawned.    "I  have  forgotten." 

Aurelia,  still  pluming  herself,  smiled. 

"Then  I  didn't.    Besides,  it  is  so  shocking." 

Violet  motioned  at  her.  "Don't  be  tiresome. 
I  may  have  lost  the  ability  to  be  shocked  but 
not  the  ability  to  be  bored." 

With  an  air  of  great  satisfaction  Aurelia 
turned. 

"Well,  this  morning,  d'Arcy  called.  He  told 
me  about  the  gayeties  last  evening  and  it 
seemed  to  me  that  he  must  have  looked  so  sweet 
with  the  champagne  all  over  him  that  I  could 
hardly  resist  accepting  him,  too." 

"Accepting  him,  three!"  Violet  exclaimed. 
She  raised  her  eyes  as  though  calling  heaven 
to  witness.  "There's  constancy  for  you!" 

Aurelia  gave  another  glance  at  her  enticing 
self. 

"Do  you  know,  I  have  always  thought  that 


228  THE   MONSTER 

constancy  must  be  due  either  to  a  lack  of  imagi 
nation  or  else  of  opportunity.  That  is  what 
you  would  call  a  moral  standpoint,  isn't  it? 
Though  what  morality  itself  is  you  never 
deigned  to  explain.  Personally  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  it  must  be  a  preference  in  a 
choice  of  experiences." 

Violet  stood  up.  "One  might  suppose  you 
thought  it  consisted  in  being  engaged  to  half 
a  dozen  men  at  the  same  time." 

Enthusiastically  the  girl  regarded  her. 
"There!  That's  it!  You've  struck  it!  There 
is  safety  in  numbers  and  \vhat  a  moral  young 
person  I  am!" 

Violet  nodded.  "I  never  suspected  it  be 
fore." 

"Nor  I,"  Aurelia  contentedly  replied.  She 
looked  at  Leilah.  "By-by." 

"Good-by,"  Violet  added. 

In  a  moment  both  had  gone  and  Leilah, 
again  alone,  reopened  the  little  treatise  on  the 
Paramitas. 

The  way  was  now  clear  and  to  that  way  the 
pamphlet  had  pointed.  It  had  done  more.  It 
had  brought  the  exaltation  which  such  beati 
tudes  do  bring  to  those  in  great  distress.  But 
though  it  had  exalted,  suddenly  the  fervour  fell 
from  her,  for  at  once  she  foresaw  the  scene 
which  she  would  have  with  Verplank,  when 


THE   MONSTER  229 

now,  at  the  last  moment,  she  had  to  tell  him 
that  she  could  not  go.  The  terror  of  it  daunted 
her.  She  could  see  him,  demanding  that  she 
tell  him  why — that  faltering  why  of  hers 
which  would  be  gibberish  to  him  and  yet 
which  summarised  her  ideals. 

For  the  moment  she  felt  that  she  lacked 
the  strength  for  this,  that  it  would  be  better  to 
write  him  and  she  was  thinking  what  she 
would  say  and  how  she  would  say  it,  when 
something  external,  a  noise  from  without,  dis 
tracted  her. 

She  stood  up  and  went  to  the  window,  from 
which,  since  the  day  of  the  ambuscade,  she 
had  had  no  heart  to  look. 

Below,  a  footman  in  a  canary  coat  and  black 
knee-breeches  was  walking,  bareheaded, 
straight  on.  At  the  gate  he  stopped,  fumbled 
with  the  latch,  drew  back  the  door,  held  it 
open. 

A  man  entered.  Tall  and  broad-shouldered, 
he  had  a  rigid  face,  calm  eyes,  the  air  of  a 
judge.  His  beard,  intensely  black,  the  beard  of 
a  Saracen,  was  close  cut  and  pointed.  He  was 
dressed  in  black. 

Another  man  followed.  Shorter,  fairer,  dis 
tinctly  fat,  he  had  a  box  under  his  arm.  About 
the  box  were  broad  bands,  sealed  with  red  wax. 

A  third  man   appeared.     Older  than   the 


230  THE  MONSTER 

others,  he  had  gray  hair,  glasses  rimmed  with 
tortoise-shell,  and  a  bag. 

All  three  were  in  black,  all  were  grave,  all 
were  silent,  and  as  they  stood  before  the  gate 
they  partially  concealed  a  fourth  man,  who,  in 
black  also,  wore  white  gloves. 

What  they  had  come  for  Leilah  could  not 
imagine.  Then,  at  once,  she  recalled  what 
Violet  had  said:  the  rigors  of  French  justice,  a 
husband's  ability  to  cage  an  erring  wife,  to  put 
her  away,  indefinitely,  among  the  demented 
and  the  depraved,  and  at  the  sight  of  these 
men,  at  the  thought  of  the  Byzantine  abysses 
of  Barouffski's  nature,  abysses  perhaps  un 
sounded  yet,  dread  shook  her.  She  shuddered. 

But  now  another  procession  appeared,  one 
that  issued  not  from  the  gate,  but  from  the 
house,  a  procession  also  composed  of  four  men, 
also  grave,  also  silent.  One  of  them  she  vague 
ly  recalled,  and  her  stumbling  memory  tried  to 
put  a  name  on  him,  Dal,  Mai,  Pal-Palencia! 
Another,  too,  she  remembered,  Tyszkiewicz.  A 
third  also,  and,  to  her  cost,  she  knew.  It  was 
Barouffski. 

In  the  first  procession  there  was  now  a  fourth 
acquaintance.  The  man  with  white  gloves  was 
raising  his  hat.  As  he  did  so  she  recognised 
d'Arcy.  Then  at  last  she  understood,  and, 
lest  they  should  see  her,  drew  back. 


THE  MONSTER  231 

Meanwhile  the  footman  had  disappeared. 
From  the  first  procession  the  man  with  the 
umbrella  and  the  man  with  the  box  detached 
themselves.  From  the  second,  Palencia  and 
Tyszkiewicz  advanced. 

For  a  little,  grouped  together,  they  con 
versed  inaudibly,  but  amply  with  gestures  and 
movements  that  included  the  tossing  of  a  coin. 

A  pantomime  followed.  Tyszkiewicz,  Pa 
lencia  and  the  fat  man  moved  to  one  side.  The 
man  with  the  umbrella  drew  with  the  ferule  of 
it  a  line  on  the  ground.  Then,  his  head  bent, 
one  foot  put  directly  in  front  of  the  other,  he 
walked  slowly  until  he  had  covered  a  space 
equal  apparently  to  about  fifteen  yards.  There 
he  drew  a  second  line,  straightened  himself, 
turned  to  Barouffski,  who  went  to  that  line, 
while  d'Arcy  stationed  himself  at  the  other. 

Immediately  the  fat  man  handed  his  box  to 
Palencia.  Palencia  looked  at  the  seals,  broke 
them,  opened  the  box,  and,  going  to  where 
d'Arcy  stood,  presented  it.  D'Arcy  removed  a 
glove,  removed  his  hat,  which  he  put  brim  up 
ward  beside  him,  and  taking  a  pistol  from  the 
box,  pointed  it  at  the  ground. 

Palencia  went  back,  restored  the  box  to  the 
fat  man,  who  presented  it  to  Barouffski.  An 
other  pistol  was  extracted.  The  fat  man 
moved  to  one  side.  The  man  with  the  um- 


232  THE  MONSTER 

brella  placed  himself  at  an  angle  to  d'Arcy  and 
BaroufTski.  In  front  of  him,  at  an  equal  angle, 
Palencia,  Tyszkiewicz  and  the  fat  man  stood. 
These  the  old  man  with  the  bag  and  the  fourth 
member  of  the  BaroufTski  party  joined.  The 
man  with  the  umbrella  took  out  a  watch,  and 
held  it  open  in  his  hand. 

"Attention  1" 

The  pantomime  had  ended.  Leilah  leaned 
forward.  Of  BaroufTski  she  could  see  now  but 
the  back  of  his  head,  the  back  of  his  tight-fit 
ting  coat.  But  d'Arcy,  who  stood  sideways,  his 
heels  drawn  together,  might  have  been  posing 
for  a  photograph. 

The  sky  was  leaden.  The  shrubbery  re 
sembled  it.  From  behind  an  urn  a  cat  ap 
peared.  It  meowed  and  vanished.  For  a 
moment  more  there  was  silence. 

The  man  with  the  umbrella  looked  from 
d'Arcy  to  BaroufTski. 

"Messieurs,  after  I  give  the  command  Fire, 
I  will  count  from  one  to  ten,  leaving  between 
each  number  an  interval  of  ten  seconds.  It  is 
unnecessary,  but  it  is  my  duty  to  add,  that  to 
fire  before  I  have  given  the  word,  or  after  I 
have  counted  ten,  constitutes  attempted  assassi 
nation  and,  should  death  ensue,  murder." 

He  paused,  looked  at  his  watch,  looked  at 
d'Arcy,  again  at  BaroufTski. 


THE  MONSTER  233 

"Fire!" 

Simultaneously  the  two  men  raised  and  ex 
tended  their  right  arms,  d'Arcy  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  forearm  and  butt  of  the  pistol 
masked  the  abnormal  beauty  of  his  face.  The 
hand  was  bare,  but  the  left,  which  hung  at  his 
side,  was  gloved. 

"One!    Two!    Three!" 

With  the  ridiculous  noise  of  a  firecracker  a 
pistol  went  off.  D'Arcy,  lowering  his  right 
hand,  raised  and  shook  the  left.  The  delicate 
material  of  the  glove  had  reddened,  and  on  the 
ground  specks  of  crimson  dropped. 

"Four!    Five!" 

D'Arcy's  left  hand  fell  back.  He  raised  the 
right. 

"Six!    Seven!    Eight!" 

Measuredly,  monotonously,  but  more  loudly 
than  before,  the  final  numbers  were  being 
called.  Infinitesimally  the  point  of  d'Arcy's 
pistol  moved.  His  heels  were  no  longer  drawn 
together.  His  right  hand  was  held  less  high. 
His  left  hand  burned.  Otherwise  he  was  en 
tirely  at  his  ease. 

He  had  withstood  Barouffski's  fire.  It  was 
Barouffski's  turn  to  withstand  his.  He  had 
time  and  to  spare.  Slowly,  coolly,  deliberately, 
he  was  taking  aim. 

It  was  very  agreeable.    He  was  smiling.  He 


234  THE  MONSTER 

was  enjoying  himself.  He  was  enjoying  Ba- 
rouffski's  presumable  suspense.  He  was 
savouring  his  equally  presumable  agitations. 
The  man's  face  had  turned  ashen.  The  fact 
that  it  had,  that  he  could  see  it  had,  delighted 
him.  He  felt  sure  of  himself,  and  his  thoughts 
were  pleasant. 

He  was  thinking:  "That  glass  of  wine  of 
yours  was  the  last  you  will  ever  ask  me  or  any 
one  else  to  drink." 

He  had  become  aware  of  Leilah's  presence. 
That,  too,  delighted  him.  If  he  had  a  regret, 
it  was  that  Tempest,  the  Silverstairs,  all  the 
demi-mondaines  and  exotics  of  the  night  be 
fore,  the  Bohemians  to  boot,  the  waiters 
as  well,  were  not  present  also.  Though 
in  appearance  divine,  at  heart  he  was 
human. 

Again,  imperceptibly,  the  point  of  his  pistol 
moved. 

"Nine!" 

The  trigger  had  been  pulled.  There  was  a 
fresh  detonation.  D'Arcy  handed  his  pistol 
to  the  fat  man,  bent  over,  took  up  his  hat,  put 
it  on,  took  it  off,  raised  it  straight  upward,  and 
for  a  moment,  before  replacing  it,  held  it  high 
in  the  air. 

Leilah,  without  noticing  the  salute  which 
was  intended  for  her,  saw  Barouffski  turn  com- 


THE  MONSTER  235 

pletely  around,  sink  on  his  knees,  press  his 
hands  to  his  side,  and  pitch  forward. 

It  was  a  feint,  she  thought,  histrionics  for 
the  gallery,  perhaps  for  her.  But  now  the  old 
man  and  his  colleague  were  bending  over  him. 
Behind  them,  Palencia,  Tyszkiewicz  and  the 
man  with  the  umbrella  leaned.  Barouffski's 
coat  and  waistcoat  were  opened,  his  shirt  was 
torn  apart. 

Leilah  heard  what  to  her  was  the  meaning- 
lessness  of  technical  terms.  She  saw  the  men 
who  had  been  bending  arise.  She  saw  the 
others  remove  their  hats.  At  the  significant 
action  she  saw  that  the  garden  had  been  again 
invaded,  this  time  by  Death. 

She  turned,  clutching  for  support  at  the  vel 
vet  of  a  curtain,  overwhelmed  at  the  knowl 
edge  that  her  prison  had  crumbled,  that  the 
jailer  was  gone. 

It  had  been  her  destiny  to  have  sorrow  spring 
into  her  life,  fell  her,  make  her  its  own,  and  to 
what  end?  Tearfully  she  had  put  that  query 
to  walls  as  callous  as  fate.  Tearfully  she  had 
come  to  believe  that  she  was  damned  in  this 
existence  for  sins  committed  in  another.  It  is 
this  life  that  is  hell  she  had  told  herself.  But 
now,  abruptly,  the  malediction  was  lifted. 
Still  in  hell,  she  was  at  the  portals,  the  gates 
were  open,  she  was  free! 


236  THE   MONSTER 

Yet  was  she?  At  the  moment  it  seemed  to 
her  that  it  was  all  a  hallucination;  that,  if  she 
looked  again  into  the  accursed  garden,  she 
would  see  Barouffski  tapping  his  breast  with 
one  hand,  pointing  to  some  prostrate  form 
with  the  other,  and,  with  his  ambiguous  smile, 
calling  to  her: 

"See,  my  dear,  I,  I  am  unharmed." 

So  poignant  was  the  impression  that  she  did 
look.  A  litter  had  been  improvised,  and  on  it 
BaroufTski,  an  arm  pendent,  his  head  fallen 
back,  his  face  a  gray  green,  was  being  put. 

On  the  door  behind  her  sounded  the  muf 
fled  tap  of  ringers  furtive  and  discreet.  She 
turned.  At  the  threshold  was  Parker. 

"If  you  please,  my  lady.  Will  your  ladyship 
receive— 

"No,"  Leilah  answered.  She  was  about  to 
add  that  she  was  at  home  to  no  one.  But  she 
caught  herself.  "Who  is  it?" 

With  that  air  which  those  acquire  who  at 
tend  to  delicate  matters,  the  woman  answered : 
"Mr.  Verplank." 

Leilah  drew  a  long  breath.  She  went  to  the 
mirror.  The  curtain  had  disarranged  her  hair. 
She  readjusted  it,  and  passed  out  and  down  in 
to  the  slippery  salon. 

Verplank  was  leaning  against  the  piano. 
His  left  arm  was  in  a  sling,  and  the  left  side 


THE   MONSTER  237 

of  his  face  from  the  nose  to  the  ear  was 
bandaged. 

Before  either  could  speak  there  came  from 
the  hall  a  murmur  of  voices,  the  sound  of 
lumbering  feet,  the  noise  of  people  labouring 
upward. 

Verplank  looked  at  Leilah,  and  from  her  to 
the  door. 

"What  is  that?" 

On  and  upward  moved  the  steps,  the  noise 
decreasing  as  they  passed,  the  sound  subsiding 
with  them. 

"What  is  it?"  Verplank  asked  again. 

Leilah's  under  lip  trembled.  The  deliver 
ance  from  the  vortex,  the  after-shudder  that 
comes  when  some  great  peril  has  been  barely 
escaped,  the  sensation  of  strength  overtaxed, 
these  things  fusing  with  the  consciousness  that 
the  last  barricade  had  been  taken,  that  there 
were  now  no  more  hostages  to  joy,  induced 
in  her  one  of  the  most  curious  of  physical 
phenomena. 

With  tears  running  down  her  cheeks,  she 
smiled.  Then,  sobbing  and  smiling  still,  she 
answered  him : 

"The  key  of  the  prison." 

Verplank  nodded.  He  did  not  in  the  least 
understand.  But  the  singularity  of  her  ap 
pearance,  joined  to  the  singularity  of  her  re 
ply,  aroused  in  him  a  great  pity  for  this  worn- 


238  THE  MONSTER 

an  who  had  ruined  her  life,  ruined  his  own, 
and  who  then  seemed  to  him  demented. 

"Pardon,  madame  la  comtesse.  Monsieur 
Palencia  and  Monsieur  Tyszkiewicz  ask  if 
madame  la  comtesse  will  receive  them?" 

At  the  door,  behind  her,  was  Emmanuel. 

At  once  another  phenomenon  occurred. 
Galvanised  by  that  instinct  of  form  which, 
when  requisite,  enables  women  of  the  world 
to  banish  instantly  any  trace  of  emotion,  Lei- 
lah  turned  to  the  footman  a  face  in  which  the 
tears  had  been  reabsorbed,  and  from  which 
the  smile  had  gone. 

"Say  to  these  gentlemen  that  I  appreciate 
and  thank  them,  but  that  I  can  see  no  one." 

Emmanuel  compressed  his  lips.  He  won 
dered  how  she  knew.  There  was  a  great  deal 
occurring  in  this  house  that  perplexed  him. 
Moreover,  Verplank's  bandage  and  sling  in 
terested  him  very  much.  But,  trained  to  his 
calling,  he  bowed  and  withdrew. 

"What  do  they  want?"  Verplank  asked, 
memories  of  his  own  duel  surging  at  mention 
of  their  names  before  him. 

In  Leilah's  face  the  tears  and  smiles  re 
appearing,  mingled. 

"Barouffski  is  dead,"  she  answered. 

Verplank  closed  and  opened  a  hand.  His 
mouth  opened  also.  He  was  sure  now  that 
she  was  crazy. 


THE   MONSTER  239 

"Dead!    How?    What  do  you  mean?" 

Leilah  made  a  gesture. 

"There,  a  moment  ago,  in  the  garden. 
D'Arcy  shot  him." 

Verplank  started.  The  definiteness  of  her 
reply  divested  him  of  his  idea  concerning  her, 
but  it  produced  another  which  was  also, 
though  differently,  disturbing.  His  eyes 
blazed.  The  old  scar,  the  scar  on  the  right 
side  of  his  face,  reddened. 

"Who  the  devil  is  d'Arcy?" 

For  a  moment  he  stared.  Then,  angrily 
snapping  two  fingers,  he  cried: 

"In  taking  you  from  this  damned  house  to 
day,  I  had  intended  to  leave  a  card  for  him,  not 
a  p.  p.  c.  either,  one  with  our  address  on  it 
and  the  hours  when  I  would  be  at  home.  If 
there  was  any  shooting  going  on,  I  intended 
to  be  in  it.  Now  some  duffer  must  interfere." 

With  a  rapid  intake  of  the  breath,  he  con 
sidered  her.  At  the  moment,  he  doubted  it 
could  be  true.  Yet  her  face,  with  its  hysterical 
blending  of  joy  and  sorrow,  seemed  to  certify 
that  it  was  so.  After  all,  he  reflected,  however 
the  odour  may  occur,  always  the  smell  of  an 
enemy's  corpse  is  sweet.  But,  uncertain  still, 
he  threw  out  for  clincher: 

"Is  that  what  you  meant  by  the  key  of  the 
prison?" 

She  moved  to  him. 


240  THE  MONSTER 

"Gulian,  yes,  and  never  can  I  be  thankful 
enough  that  it  was  not  your  hand  that  turned 
it." 

Verplank  tossed  his  bandaged  head. 

"So  this  is  the  end!" 

Leilah  looked  up  at  him. 

"Gulian,  no,  not  that.  The  end  of  the  be 
ginning,  if  you  like.  Hereafter  we  will  be 
beginning  anew.  Hereafter- 
She  paused.  The  word  had  been  evocative. 
Its  repetition  showed  her  that  which  she  had 
not  yet  had  time  to  consider;  the  decencies  of 
life,  the  decencies,  too,  of  death,  the  funeral, 
the  widow's  weeds,  the  delay  which  the  world 
exacts;  new  hostages  to  joy,  real  though  im 
permanent. 

She  told  him  of  them. 

From  the  church  next  door  the  organ  pealed, 
and  as  they  then  remade  their  plans — those 
plans  which  mortals  think  they  make,  and 
which  always  are  unmade  unless  intended  for 
them — a  ray  of  sunshine  entered;  the  organ 
pealed  louder,  the  beauty  of  the  melody  hushed 
their  voices,  and  for  a  moment,  to  the  appog- 
giatura  of  Stradella,  on  that  shaft  of  light, 
Leilah's  thoughts,  ascending,  mounted  into 
realms  where  all  things  broken  are  made  com 
plete,  and  where  are  found  again  things  van 
ished. 


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